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HL Select Funds

First look at the fund

HL SELECT UK GROWTH SHARES

First look at the fund

Fund changes

Important information - The value of this fund can still fall so you could get back less than you invested, especially over the short term. The information shown is not personal advice and the information about individual companies represents our view as managers of the fund. It is not a personal recommendation to invest in a particular company. If you are at all unsure of the suitability of an investment for your circumstances please contact us for personal advice. The HL Select Funds are managed by our sister company HL Fund Managers Ltd.
Steve Clayton

Steve Clayton - Fund Manager

12 December 2016

We've just published the first completed holdings in our new HL Select UK Shares fund. You can find out what we bought and why on the portfolio breakdown page.

View the portfolio breakdown

Click on each name for a short description of the business and a brief rationale behind the position.

It's been a busy first week, but the fund is taking shape nicely. Markets were weak for the first few days, so we found sellers easily and were able to build our positions in the larger stocks quite easily. We won't reveal the smaller names until we've finished building the positions.

Rather than leave the money we have yet to invest, just sitting in cash, we've bought an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) that tracks the market, so we don't miss out if the market goes up. As we find parcels of the shares we are still looking to add to, we'll cut the holding in the ETF right back down.

So far, we've been buying shares in fast moving consumer goods producers, like Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser, both of which have great track records, although this isn't a guide to the future, and we've taken advantage of double-digit declines in their shares in recent months to buy at what we think are attractive prices. Burberry is a luxury goods brand going through a tough time, but with excellent financial strength, not least a cash pile of over half a billion pounds.

We've built holdings in leading media players, like WPP, whose track record of growth is excellent and Ascential, who run world-class exhibitions and trade fairs with some exciting online activities too.

Some of the stocks are very much from the Old World, like Bunzl, which distributes dull as dishwater items like plastic food trays to grocery chains, but often, technology is at the heart of the names we've chosen. Sage Group is a leading accountancy software provider and Fidessa provides the electronic systems that tie fund managers and stockbrokers together, enabling transactions to process in the blink of an eye. Just Eat's software platform connects the public to tens of thousands of takeaway restaurants and has been growing like Topsy.

The portfolio is very international in flavour, with many of the stocks earning most of their income overseas, so if the UK economy flips and flops toward Brexit, the fund has some insulation. Most of all, we've focused on the financial strength of our chosen names, to give a further layer of protection.

We're really excited about some of the smaller names we're still working on, and look forward to revealing them in the weeks to come, as the positions are completed.

View the portfolio breakdown

More about HL Select UK Shares

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Important - This article is not advice or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any investment. No view is given on the present or future value or price of any investment, and investors should form their own view on any proposed investment. This article has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and is considered a marketing communication. Non-independent research is not subject to FCA rules prohibiting dealing ahead of research, however HL has put controls in place (including dealing restrictions, physical and information barriers) to manage potential conflicts of interest presented by such dealing. Please see our full non-independent research for more information. Unless otherwise stated performance figures are from Bloomberg and estimates, including prospective yields, are a consensus of analyst forecasts from Bloomberg. They are not a reliable indicator of future performance. Yields are variable and not guaranteed.