London, 21 January 2008 - Fidelity International has today launched the Fidelity Funds
European Special Situations Fund, an unconstrained and concentrated equity fund within the Fidelity SICAV.
The new pan-European equity fund will be run by Fehim Sever, a former research analyst who has been with Fidelity for almost 7 years and has 10 years industry experience. For the past 12 months Fehim has run a similar fund for Canadian investors, delivering an 18.1% return compared with -3.4% from his benchmark index - out performance of 21.5%.*
FF European Special Situations is an unconstrained fund with a broad remit and an expected tracking error of between 8% and 12%. Fehim intends to run a high conviction, concentrated portfolio of between 35 and 50 holdings, using a blend of thematic and bottom up stock picking opportunities. He will look for companies where he believes the potential for structural growth or for change are underestimated or where there is an anomaly in valuation multiples or methodology.
Extending the frontiers
The FF European Special Situations portfolio will have a wide geographical coverage and look to exploit opportunities in the markets of New Europe – Eastern, Central and South-Eastern Europe, in particular the Baltics, Russia, Turkey and Greece. This reflects Fehim’s view that there are attractive investment opportunities to be found in this part of the region with strong long-term structural earnings drivers.
New UCITS III powers
Like the managers of other funds in the Fidelity Special Situations range, Fehim can make use of derivatives and other financial instruments now available under the UCITS III regulations. Fehim will use these powers gradually and on an opportunistic basis. They are supplementary to the research-driven stock-picking that is the engine of the fund and will enable him to look for stock specific returns on both the long and short side.
Extending the Fidelity European equity range
FF European Special Situations is at the upper end of the risk spectrum in the Fidelity range of European equity funds. Its closest comparable fund is European Aggressive, another unconstrained and concentrated fund.
The full SICAV range is as follows:
Core funds
FF Euro Blue Chip
FF European Larger Companies
Core Plus funds
FF European Growth
FF European Dynamic Growth
Unconstrained
FF European Aggressive
FF European Special Situations
Michael Jones, Head of Financial Institutions at Fidelity International, says: ”Fehim was one of our highest rated analysts and now has a proven record as a portfolio manager, achieving magnificent performance in 2007. We believe the European Special Situations Fund has the fund manager, remit and flexibility to be a top-performing fund in the years ahead, exploiting the opportunities in developed European markets as well as the extraordinary demographic and economic developments in newer European and near-European markets.”
The Sterling share class of the FF European Special Situations has an initial charge of 3.5% and an annual management charge of 1.5%. Initial commission on the fund is 3% and trail commission will be paid at 0.5%. The minimum investment in the fund is £1,000 and £500 for top-ups. The fund will also be available for regular savings plan (with a monthly minimum of £50) and for regular withdrawals through the Fidelity withdrawal plan. The fund will also be available within ISA and PEP wrappers.
FIL Limited (“FIL”) and its subsidiary companies serve the major markets of the world by providing investment products and services to individuals and institutional investors outside the US. The FIL Organisation manages a total of £148 billion of assets**.
Notes to editors:
*Source: Fidelity, performance period 31.12.06 to 31.12.07, in Canadian Dollar terms.
**Source: Fidelity as at 30.09.07
Any opinions expressed are made at the time of writing and can be subject to change without notification. The value of investments can go down as well as up and an investor may not get back the original amount invested. For funds that invest in overseas markets, changes in currency exchange rates may affect the value of an investment. Past performance is not a guide to future returns. Fidelity Funds and Fidelity Funds II are open-ended investment companies established in Luxembourg with different classes of shares. The UK distributor of Fidelity Funds and Fidelity Funds II is FIL Investments International. The Fidelity ISA is offered and managed by Financial Administration Services Limited. These figures reflect the resources of FIL Limited (FIL) and its subsidiaries, and FMR LLC and affiliate and its subsidiaries. Source: FIL and FMR LLC as at 30/09/07. Assets as at 30.09.07 are those of FIL. Fidelity, Fidelity International and Pyramid Logo are trademarks of FIL Limited.
