Standard life UK Smaller Companies

The Standard Life UK Smaller Companies fund is designed to generate profits by investing predominately in smaller companies, which are based in the UK.

Smaller companies usually have higher volatility than their larger counter parts; therefore, the fund tries to limit risk, by holding a broad range of stocks in a variety of sectors. The fund will tend to hold roughly 50-70 stocks, all with a big enough holding to have a direct impact on the overall fund performance.

Harry Nimmo is the investment director and head of the UK smaller companies desk for Standard Life investment; he successfully manages the Standard Life UK Smaller Companies fund. He has held various investment analyst positions and manager roles, covering US equity funds, larger UK quoted company funds and UK equity smaller company funds. Harry is has won an array of awards including 'Best UK Small Cap' category at the Money Observer Investment Trust Awards 2009, and is triple AAA rated by Citywire. Harry and his team combined both financial, economic analytical methods in an attempt to locate small to medium size companies, which are undervalued by the market. Harry takes a very hand's on approach to investment; he often visits companies' management teams and to have a look around business sites, as part of in depth research process. Harry believes the market has reached the bottom of the downward economic cycle. He is now positioning his fund into companies that can make super-normal profits, during the economic recovery. The fund will also focus on defensive growth, in particular firms, which have robust balance sheets that will make firms able to cope with the rest of the economic fallout.

The fund has outperformed the sector average over the past 5 years by almost 50%, making this an ideal fund for investors; who wish to have some exposure to small company growth. However, due to the nature of small companies and the high amount of risk associated with them; we would strongly recommend only experienced investors to consider them.