Snowdonia Fund celebrates its birthday in style

11th November 2005

David Owen, the Chairman of Buckles Holdings, the Rhyl based financial advisers, welcomed over 150 investors in the firm’s Snowdonia Fund, a so called fund of funds, to a seminar at Bodelwyddan Castle, North Wales, last Friday, 11 th November. The event celebrated the first anniversary of the Fund, which has attracted over £43 million mainly from investors living in North Wales, who had seen their money show a return of over 16 percent since launch in October 2004. Mr. Owen stressed the cautious, conservative nature of the Fund and explained that the managers had been given instructions that their strategy should reflect this approach. In this light, the Fund’s performance was very pleasing, he added.

Guests were given presentations by the investment managers of the Fund and had the opportunity to quiz these experts on the Fund’s performance and future investment strategy. The Fund consists of a three sub-funds, Balanced; Growth; and Income, whilst a fourth, Property, will be launched in December. The Fund is an OEIC which invests in other collective funds, rather than individual stocks and shares.

David Oakes of Mercater Capital Management spoke about the Balanced fund, giving an overview of the global economy. “Whilst outlook for the UK economy remains sluggish, I am very keen on Asia, particularly Japan and China, where the economy is expected to grow at 9% in 2006”, he said.

Quintin Ings-Chambers, of Rensburg Investment Management, spoke about the Growth fund and was also enthusiastic about the Japanese economic and political situation there following the government’s landslide election win in September.

David Hambidge, of Premier Fund Mangers, discussed the performance of the Income fund, whilst also expressing concern at the sluggish nature of the UK economy. Inflation, although at a nine year high, driven up by increases in the price of oil was under control. He anticipates a drop in interest rates in 2006, although an increase in taxation as consumer spending continues to fall. The income yield of the Income fund, although slightly below the target of four percent, was on track in the long term. In fact the success of attracting money to the fund had made management harder in the short term.

Mr. Hambidge’s colleague, Mike Hammond, told the audience about a new Property sub-fund, collectively investing in commercial property, which will be launched in December. This will aim to capitalise on the strength of the European commercial sector, whilst retaining Snowdonia’s investment philosophy. The fund will invest real estate investment trusts or REITs, which as Mr. Hammond explained is the most tax efficient way of investing in property. He also added that there were excellent opportunities for REITs in Continental Europe, notably Germany. Rents and yields remain attractive. The fund launches on 6 th December and will be managed by Alex Ross, formerly manager of the very successful Aberdeen Property Share Unit Trust.

Nigel Speirs, Chief Executive of Buckles commented on the success of the Snowdonia Funds and of the seminar:

“It is highly unusual for individual investors to have the opportunity to meet fund managers and to hear how they have looked after their investments. We are delighted that the fund has grown so rapidly – our target was for £25 million in the first year and we are thrilled with the response from our clients. They, too, seem happy with the performance – the Balanced Fund is up 13.9 %, the Growth Fund is up 16.5 %, whilst the Income Fund shows a return of 12.3% since October 2004.

“It is our goal to be “our clients’ chosen financial adviser”, looking after all their financial affairs, not just “a financial adviser”. Snowdonia has been critical in realising this aim.”