"The departures of Neil Pegrum two years ago and Tim Russell last year were issues for Cazenove. It has regrouped since and is now looking in far better shape. This is because Cazenove still has talented managers in Chris Rice, Julie Dean and Paul Marriage."
"Indeed, Dean and Marriage took over Pegrum’s mandates and continued to deliver but it doesn’t stop there. Steve Cordell, from the Pan-European Equity desk, took over Russell’s UK Absolute Target last summer and reversed the fund’s fortunes. Cazenove may have unearthed another star manager. All-in-all, the future looks bright for this investment house."
Tim Cockerill, head of collectives research, Rowan Dartington
"Cazenove Capital Management can be split into three parts, private clients, charities and fund management, which manages approximately £15bn. Its investment approach is broadly conservative and its two main equity funds, UK Growth and Income and European, are at the heart of this approach, which is built around the concept of the business cycle." "All of this is eminently sensible, but when normal market and economic conditions are suspended, as they have been in the past two or three years, using this approach is more difficult and both funds seem to have found conditions difficult."
"However the UK Smaller Companies fund has been a standout performer. And the UK Absolute Target Return fund which didn’t fulfil expectations with Tim Russell in charge has been performing much better since Steve Cordell and Julie Dean have taken over. Cazenove is a solid investment house, conservative, long-term and dependable."
Patrick Connolly, head of communications at AWD Chase de Vere
"Cazenove is known as a business cycle investor. It can therefore run its funds without style bias, selecting stocks it believes will benefit at the particular time in the economic cycle. The success or failure of its funds is often reliant on it making the correct business cycle calls."
"It has a very concentrated range of funds consisting of UK and European equity, European fixed interest, multi-manager and absolute return. None of these could be called a flagship fund but they all have merit."
"While there have been some changes in personnel at Cazenove, performance has held up and we are happy to use Cazenove funds."
Adrian Lowcock, senior investment adviser, Bestinvest
"The group gives its managers a significant amount of freedom to run portfolios as they see fit and follow their own ideas, so there is little institutional level or macro overlay which could conflict with the fund managers' views." "Cazenove’s reputation has been strong in Europe and whilst Chris Rice, a cyclical investor, had a tough year it is far too soon to write of a manager of his experience. With the freedom the managers have, it is important to understand their individual processes and on the whole Cazenove managers are very capable at expressing their views, which is essential when picking the right fund managers for my clients."