Julie Dean has joined Chelverton Asset Management to run a new fund with her business cycle investing approach.
The Chelverton UK Opportunities fund, which Dean will manage with Henry Botting, is an all-cap portfolio holding between 35 and 55 UK stocks and with a minimum of 60% of its assets in large-caps.
Aiming to outperform the UK equity market by 3% per annum over rolling three-year periods, the fund will have no permanent size, sector or style bias and will instead tilt to the best opportunities offered by the current stage of the business cycle.
The business cycle approach combines a top-down economic and stock market strategy with fundamental stock selection. This means an assessment of leading economic indicator data determines the portfolio style and size bias, while the active stock selection process leads the managers to companies with the fastest undiscounted earnings growth relative to the market at each stage of the business cycle.
Dean started her career in 1992 at GT Asset Management and has a long track record in UK equities, including managing funds at HSBC and Cazenove.
She achieved a 251.7% return on the Schroder UK Opportunities fund over the decade to 31 August 2014, significantly outperforming the IA UK All Companies sector’s 126.9% average return. From 2015 to 2019, she co-founded and managed Sanditon Asset Management before joining Chelverton earlier this year.
Co-manager Henry Botting, who joined Chelverton in 2021, brings a decade of experience in UK equities and runs MI Chelverton UK Equity Growth, the top-performing IA UK All Companies fund over the past decade.
Dean said: “I am thrilled to be working with Chelverton – they are a super bunch of people, all of whom are passionate about investing, so it feels a bit like coming home. I am delighted with the opportunity to manage this new fund with Henry. The UK stock market is much maligned and offers world class investment opportunities.”