Threadneedle this week announced the launch of a US equity Ucits which aims to profit from prevailing market pessimism by targeting the country’s most attracti
Threadneedle this week announced the launch of a US equity Ucits which aims to profit from prevailing market pessimism by targeting the country’s most attractive out of favour large-cap stocks. The Lux-domiciled Threadneedle US Contrarian Core Equities fund is to be managed by Guy Pope, a managing director at Columbia Management, the asset management subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial. The same approach to running the firm’s USD1.6billion Columbia Management Contrarian Core fund will be used, employing a screening method to identify large cap US stocks in the bottom third of their annual yearly price range. Contrarian investors stand outside of the herd, deliberately targeting stocks that are overlooked and focusing on profit as opposed to popular consensus. Jim Rogers and George Soros are two legendary contrarians. Pope said that the fund was all about “pessimism”. “By taking a bottom-up approach to finding these stocks we can identify those unfavoured companies with the best upside potential in order to generate alpha for clients,” said Pope, adding: “I’m delighted to be bringing my investment strategy, which I’ve been running for seven years, to Europe, the UK and Asia through the Threadneedle Luxembourg SICAV.”
