Europe's top selling fund manager set to launch into UK

Europe's best-selling fund manager, Edouard Carmignac, says the UK is his next target for his top performing funds.

Assets at his Carmignac Gestion firm have risen from €12.7 billion at the end of 2008 to more than €33 billion now, as investors around continental Europe have flocked to his Paris-based boutique. His flagship vehicle is the €14 billion mixed asset Carmignac Patrimoine fund, and he also runs the sector-topping €5.3 billion global equity fund Carmignac Investissement . 

UK investors have so far missed out on his talents, however, but restrictions may be about to be lifted which would make it easier for such Luxembourg-domiciled funds to sell into the UK.

'We are keeping an eye on the UK and it will be the next step,' the AAA-rated French veteran told Citywire. 'It currently has checks and obstacles of a protectionist nature and funds of our type are not necessarily welcome there. But this could change with the regulatory and tax changes coming in. There’s no way the UK will remain a financial island forever.’

Out of the 415 managers in Lipper's equity global sector, Carmignac is top over five years. He has returned 96.3% with his Carmignac Investissement  fund, while the sector's average manager has returned just 4.34%.

In the last 10 years the flagship Carmignac Patrimoine fund has returned 122%, while the average fund in Lipper's mixed asset EUR flex global sector has lost 10%.

Carmignac appeared in a rare video interview published on the Citywire website earlier this week (watch here).