Harvey Jones reveals the identity of his favourite money manager.
Everybody has their favourite fund manager. Anthony Bolton at Fidelity had his admirers in their thousands, while Neil Woodford at Invesco Perpetual enjoys a loyal and vocal fan club.
They're both excellent managers (as if you didn't know), but they aren't my top dogs. My top spot belongs to Philip Gibbs, who has managed AAA-rated Jupiter Financial Opportunities since launch in May 1997, and now handles 15% of my entire portfolio.
Buy Gibbs!
He didn't start off by managing such a hefty chunk of my future prosperity. It was just that his fund kept rising faster than all the others, tempting me to hand over more of my money, and then a bit more. And still it kept on rising.
And then when all the other fund managers in my portfolio were ritually slaughtered in last October's crash, he kept his head. He's done pretty well in the recovery too.
So here I am today, with a large interest in Philip Gibbs, in fact, I'm heavily overweight in Philip Gibbs, but I'm not worried, because over the last eight or nine years, he hasn't let me down.
Past performance isn't everything, but…
Since launch just over 12 years ago, Jupiter Financial Opportunities has delivered a total return of 817%. Its benchmark sector, FTSE Financials, grew 25%.
In the last five years, Philip Gibbs delivered 107% against -24% for his benchmark, and over the last 12 months, he returned 25% (against -25% for that benchmark). His compound annual growth rate over that time was just shy of 20%.
As you can see, he's quite good.
Most remarkably of all, when markets crashed last autumn, and proud financial giants such as Barclays (LSE: BARC) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) almost bit the dust, Jupiter Financial Opportunities actually rose in value.
Say what?
Yes, Philip Gibbs saw it coming, and diverted his fund into US Treasuries and cash before things turned truly nasty. Clever chap.
And since March he has been steadily returning to international blue-chip banking stocks. Another wise move.
Despite his concerns over debt, budget deficits and future interest rate rises, he expects to benefit from "a growing mood of confidence with positive implications for the financial sector".
Value and growth
His £1.2 billion fund's goal is to deliver capital growth primarily by investing in a concentrated portfolio of international financial stocks, with a UK bias. He likes lowly rated stocks with strong underlying growth, and is willing to take a big punt on his best ideas. No benchmarking here.
His major holdings now include BNP Paribas, Bank of America, Barclays, JP Morgan Chase, Norwegian bank DNB Nor, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Prudential (LSE: PRU), Goldman Sachs and Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY).
Jupiter think so much of Gibbs that it recently announced it was launching two new funds for him in the new year, subject to FSA approval.
His new international financials fund will use Ucits III powers to short stocks in areas of the market where he feels bearish, and will hold more small caps than Jupiter Financial Opportunities.
His global absolute return fund will have a "go anywhere" mandate that will allow it to cover assets and sectors beyond financials.
I suspect more of my money will be heading in his direction.
In gold medals we trust
I'm not the only one to hail Philip Gibb's talents. His reputation has reached Germany, where he has just been festooned with gold medals in the annual Sauren Golden Awards for 2009, winning six golds for outstanding financial management. Apparently, he nearly toppled over on the podium.
To be frank, I've never heard of the Sauren Golden Awards, but they clearly know a good fund manager when they see one.
Hold Gibbs
I flogged off most of my funds in recent months, having discovered that most weren't worth the fees they were charging, but I'm hanging onto Jupiter Financial Opportunities. I didn't consider dropping it for a moment.
I would have liked to have interviewed Philip Gibbs for this article, but sadly, he doesn't speak to the press. I suppose he is too busy making money for his investors. Which is fine by me.
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