Fund overview
This is a bottom up stock picking UK equity fund, with a top down overlay reflecting fund manager's view on market direction. Stock selection is the fund’s main driver in aiming to achieve top quartile performance. Bradley uses his stock picking skills to select strong growth opportunities from across the UK market cap spectrum, building high conviction positions at both a stock and sector level.
Manager
Bradley Mitchell joined RLAM in February 2004 after a 15 year career managing UK equity portfolios. Bradley joined Commercial Union in 1987 as a graduate trainee in their Investment Department, where he managed a diverse range of portfolios including smaller company funds, mainstream unit trusts and specialist non-All Share portfolios. During this time the parent company went through two mergers and is now known as Aviva Investors. Bradley holds a degree in Economics from Nottingham University.
Investment approach
Bradley takes a contrarian approach to investing, taking advantage of moves in investor sentiment to build up positions in misunderstood and undervalued situations. Investment performance is driven by companies that have the capacity to deliver positive earnings surprises. Therefore, Bradley does a lot of his own due diligence research, often involving proprietary models and forecasts when selecting stocks.
The overall shape of the fund is influenced by Bradley’s views on whether a cyclical or defensive stance is appropriate in the prevailing market conditions. In order to aid this decision he divides the market into two blocks to ensure that the selected companies fit within his views.
The Royal London UK Growth Fund is a high conviction, market cap agnostic offering that will ordinarily hold 40-50 companies.