Liontrust UK Equity: June 2025 fund update

• Imran Sattar became sole manager of the fund in November 2023

• The manager looks to invest in growing companies with strong economic moats that help protect them from the competition

• The fund’s focus on quality means it could work well alongside other funds investing in unloved UK companies with recovery potential

• This fund does not feature on the Wealth Shortlist of funds chosen by our analysts for their long-term performance potential

How it fits in a portfolio

The Liontrust UK Equity fund could be an option for the UK section of a broader global investment portfolio. The fund’s focus on quality means it could work well alongside other funds investing in unloved UK companies with recovery potential. The manager primarily hunts in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 but also has the flexibility to invest in higher-risk smaller companies.

Manager

Imran Sattar began his career at Mercury Asset Management in 1997, before joining Blackrock to manage UK equity funds. In 2018, he joined Majedie Asset Management to continue running UK equity funds and in April 2022 joined Liontrust when the business acquired Majedie.

Following the retirement of experienced managers James de Uphaugh and Chris Field, Imran Sattar became sole manager of the fund in November 2023.

He’s supported in managing the fund by the rest of the Global Fundamental investment team at Liontrust. This includes UK specialists Emily Barnard and Tom Gilbey.

Barnard started her career at the Wellcome Trust before joining Majedie Asset Management in 2016. She joined Liontrust in 2022 following Liontrust’s acquisition of the business. Gilbey has six years of investment experience and has worked at Redwheel and Quilter Cheviot before joining Liontrust.

Process

The manager looks to invest in growing companies with strong economic moats that help protect them from the competition. These are often companies where the manager believes that the market has underestimated the duration and rate at which the company is likely to grow.

Meeting with company management teams is an important part of the investment process. The meetings allow the fund manager to probe management and glean insights that aren't available through the report and accounts. The manager also uses the insights from these meetings to inform his macroeconomic view on how economic changes could impact the companies he invests in.

The fund is mostly invested in larger companies, with 72.7% invested in businesses that feature in the FTSE 100. There is also a modest amount invested in businesses listed on overseas stock markets, at 6.1%. Industrials is the largest sector allocation in the fund at 16.3% of its assets, followed by healthcare companies at 15.1%. (Figures as at end of May 2025)

In recent months, the manager has made new investments into price comparison business MONY Group and engineering company Renishaw. Some companies have been sold from the portfolio too, this includes Fevertree, Sainsburys and BP after the manager’s conviction in the prospects for these companies fell.

Culture

Liontrust gives managers the freedom to manage their funds according to their own investment and market views. The company simply asks managers not to deviate from their investment processes. Each manager's funds are regularly checked by other senior managers at Liontrust to ensure they're staying true to their investment processes.

We like that all Liontrust fund managers invest a significant amount of their own money into the funds they run, and their incentivisation is tied to the performance of the funds they manage. We think these factors help to align their interests with those of investors.

ESG Integration

The quality of ESG integration varies across Liontrust. The firm gives fund managers the freedom to run their portfolios according to their own investment and market views. It simply asks managers not to deviate from their investment processes. The quality of ESG integration therefore varies across Liontrust’s investment teams. The firm’s Sustainable Future range of equity and fixed income funds do incorporate ESG analysis and invest to achieve positive change. Every team member is responsible for all aspects of financial and ESG analysis – ESG analysis is not farmed out to a separate team.

The team produces regular insight articles, available via the Liontrust website. Liontrust produce a stewardship report, which explores the teams’ views on a variety of sustainability-related issues.

The firm publicly discloses all voting decisions on a quarterly basis, although no rationales are provided.

Cost

This fund has an ongoing annual charge of 0.65%, but a discount of 0.10% is available for HL investors, which reduces the charge to 0.55%. The fund discount is achieved through a loyalty bonus, which could be subject to tax if held outside of an ISA or SIPP. The HL platform fee of up to 0.45% per year also applies, except in the HL Junior ISA, where no platform fee applies.

Performance

Sattar has done a decent job since taking over as sole manager of the fund. Since he took the reins in November 2023, the fund has delivered returns of 27.60%*, marginally outperforming the FTSE All Share return of 27.50% Investors should be aware that this is a very short timeframe to consider performance over and past performance isn’t a guide to the future.

Sattar was one of three managers named on the fund prior to this, featuring from July 2019 onwards. However the fund was run with a sleeved approach, blending managers with different styles into an overall portfolio. Therefore it’s only possible to attribute some, rather than all of the fund’s performance to his management.

Over the last 12 months to the end of May 2025, the fund has delivered a return of 7.49%, lagging the 9.35% return from the FTSE All Share index. Our analysis suggests that the fund’s investments in bank NatWest and US insurance focused data business Verisk have been among the most significant contributors to performance. On the other hand, industrial business Spirax and life science company Thermo Fisher have been among the key detractors from the fund’s performance.

At the time of writing, the fund has a historical yield of 2.05%. Income isn’t guaranteed, and yields aren’t a reliable indicator of future income.