Daily View: Ashby to increase conviction in LV= Equity Income fund

Former Credit Suisse manager Graham Ashby intends to increase the conviction in his new LV= Asset Management (LVAM) Equity Income fund.

Ashby can finally get to work again after months of speculation about his future following Aberdeen Asset Management's acquisition of Credit Suisse's long only business. LVAM confirmed his appointment earlier this week.

Ashby intends to make some significant changes to his new mandate in a bid to enhance its conviction.

He said: 'The fund is at a reasonable size, £75 million, but the issue is that it is very conservatively constructed. It has very large positions in some of the large caps while is doesn't have enough mid or small cap exposure,  which arguably looks a lot more interesting.'

Ashby drew parallels with his work at his previous employers.  

'This is a very similar situation to when I joined Credit Suisse so I am keen to restore the portfolios quickly and get them into a more appropriate shape. I am also planning to take a less benchmarked approach which I think will help it to perform a lot better.' 

Ashby said there are a few holding at very low weightings in the portfolio, around 0.3 or 0.4 %. He wants to increase these positions so all stocks in the portfolio have a minimum 1% weighting. 'If you are not convinced of it's prospects it shouldn't be there.' he said.

The fund currently has around 50 stocks in the portfolio, which Ashby plans to maintain while taking a bottom up stock selection approach.

He feels this is a more appropriate way of constructing a portfolio in today's changing times.

He said: 'The average UK company has become increasingly international in the last ten to twenty years. Companies also move around from one sector to another while others sit in more than one sector.