Investment Week was pleased to honour the winners of the 25th Investment Company of the Year Awards, in association with the AIC, at a special ceremony in London.
The awards recognise managers in this important part of the market, who have delivered consistently for investors across a variety of sectors.
Investment Week’s host for the awards ceremony on 16 November was financial journalist and presenter Declan Curry, while our charity for the evening was Place2Be.
Methodology
The shortlists for the awards were constructed using scores provided by the AIC, using Morningstar data. Investment companies needed a three-year track record to 30 June 2023 to be shortlisted and a market cap of £50m or above.
Within each sector, companies had their cumulative fair NAV returns calculated over three discrete periods in sterling terms. Returns over the 12 months to 30 June 2023 were given a 40% weighting, the 12 months to 30 June 2022 were given a 30% weighting, while the 12 months to 30 June 2021 accounted for 20% of the overall score. The final 10% weight was given to the full cumulative NAV return over the three years to 30 June 2023.
These scores were added to give a single score out of 100, the highest of which were considered for the shortlists, with oversight from our judging panel.
Winners were then chosen by our judging panel after heated debate during our judging sessions, where qualitative factors were also considered.
The judging panel for the awards included some of the UK’s leading researchers and investors in investment companies.
Against a challenging backdrop, our judges this year were keen to highlight consistent performers who have managed to navigate turbulent market conditions. Discount management was a major focus this year, as well as effective communications with investors and use of the investment company structure.
UK All Companies: Winner: Fidelity Special Values PLC
Overseas Smaller Companies: Winner: Fidelity Asian Values PLC
Fidelity Special Values PLC (LON:FSV) aims to seek out underappreciated companies primarily listed in the UK and is an actively managed contrarian Investment Trust that thrives on volatility and uncertainty.
Fidelity Asian Values Plc (LON:FAS) provides shareholders with a differentiated equity exposure to Asian Markets. Asia is the world’s fastest-growing economic region and the trust looks to capitalise on this by finding good businesses, run by good people and buying them at a good price.
