Citywire Selection Review: 10 funds we're adding and dropping

Citywire Selection is our pick of the best investment funds around. Following our latest six-monthly review there are now a total of 128 unit trusts, investment trusts and exchange traded funds (ETFs) we are recommending.

To find out more check out the complete list of our recommendations. 

Click on the links in the article to find out more about the funds and their managers.

New entrants

Times have been challenging, but our focus has always been on avoiding any knee-jerk reactions during our end-of-year review of the funds held in Citywire Selection. 

There are two new additions in the form of Liontrust Special Situations and Trojan Income. The Liontrust duo of Anthony Cross (pictured) and Julian Fosh have outperformed the FTSE All Share index in four of the past five years and we have a positive view on the repeatability of their process.

They identify businesses that have strong intellectual property, high barriers to entry and a high percentage of recurring income, derived from stocks across the market spectrum.

The consistency of the Trojan Income fund run by Francis Brooke has impressed us since its launch in 2004. The fund has delivered compelling yields and avoided the worst of the market falls putting it among the very top funds in the UK Equity Income sector. We believe that investor expectation in this area during volatile markets is for a steady income stream and a healthy degree of capital preservation.

Eight funds that we've cut

A fund we have decided to remove from the same sector is Standard Life Investments UK Equity High Income. Capital returns have been affected by the pro-growth stance in the portfolio and although this will at times reap rewards, the mindset and philosophy behind Trojan Income stands out and gives us long-term conviction in the approach. 

Elsewhere, managemement of the Threadneedle Global Select fund has been passed from Jeremy Podger to William Davies (pictured). Podger has joined Fidelity Worldwide Investment and Davies is making the transition from head of European equities to head of global equities. As Davies is now moving to cover a new asset class, we have decided to drop the fund.

Newton American was also removed during the period due to a manager change. Simon Laing has joined Invesco Perpetual with management of the fund moving in-house to the Boston Company Asset Management team, one of the group’s specialist North American boutiques.

The soft closing of Henderson UK Absolute Return meant this was also removed. We rate management duo Ben Wallace and Luke Newman highly, but new investors are now facing higher costs to access the fund.  

Changes have now also been made on five funds that were being closely monitored.