Well, the shortlists have been considered, the votes have been counted and now we are ready to announce the winners of the What Investment Fund Management Awards for 2007.

Now in their 23rd year, our awards seek to identify and reward those investment funds and management groups that consistently deliver outperformance and add value for their investors. We have four award categories each for open-ended funds (unit trusts and OEICs) and closed-ended funds (investments trusts and other UK-listed investment companies).

The process

In each case, the performance of each fund is compared against both its peer group and, where relevant, its benchmark, over a range of periods of up to five years.

The actual details of how the awards are calculated are set out below. In each case, data provider Financial Express calculates a performance figure for all qualifying funds and groups. These figures then provide the basis for a shortlist of the best performers in each category, of between seven and 12 nominees, depending on how close the numbers are.

That is the first part of the process. These shortlists are then given to our judging panel of analysts, brokers and independent financial advisers (see box on p.15) who rank each of the shortlisted candidates in the order they think fit for that award. These nomination lists are then combined, and the nominee with the highest average placings across all lists wins the award.

The categories

The awards comprise eight categories – Unit Trust Management Group, Specialist Unit Trust Group, Unit Trust Manager, Most Consistent Unit Trust, Investment Trust Management Group, Generalist Investment Trust, Individual Investment Trust and Most Consistent Investment Trust. We will also be making an overall award for the What Investment Fund Management Group of the Year, based on the results of the other award categories, which will be announced in December’s What Investment.

On the following pages we unveil the winners of the other individual categories, with the top five in each category in the order in which they were ranked by our panel. It is important to remember that all the funds and managers that made it onto our shortlists did so because they have substantially outperformed their peers, but that those that make it into the top five have particularly impressed the judging panel.

Not that their task was easy. As Chartwell’s James Davies, one of the judges for the open-ended categories, pointed out, ‘With Asia Pacific, emerging markets and Europe dominating the nominees and performing so well over the past 12 months, at times it’s been difficult to discern where the manager is adding value and where he/she has been lucky or travelled on momentum. During times like this, robustness through volatility and the “culture” of the investment house can be the deciding factor when trying to see through pure performance.’

I would like to thank our judging panel for their efforts and Financial Express for making sense of a mountain of raw performance data, and invite you to applaud the winners of the 2007 What Investment Fund Management Awards.

Unit trust awards

Unit Trust Management Group

This award is designed to reward fund management groups that have shown consistently superior investment returns across their entire range of funds over various time periods and measured against their peers. Only companies running at least five unit trusts are eligible for this award, while companies that accept only institutional money are also excluded.

To ensure that the award recognises fund management skill rather than a run of good luck, each individual fund is judged against funds with similar investment objectives. Fund performance was examined over one, two, three, four and five years to 31 August 2007. Funds were then given a percentile ranking to represent the position the fund would occupy if there happened to be 100 funds in the sector. The lower the percentile figure, the better the fund has performed against other unit trusts in its sector. The average percentile score for each unit trust company was then calculated.

Specialist Unit Trust Group

This award focuses on companies that have funds invested in overseas markets and specific sectors of the stock market, such as UK Smaller Companies. The performance calculations are made on a similar basis to the main UT Group award.

Since only pure equity funds qualify for this award, funds invested in the money market, property, gilt and fixed interest, and UK equity and bond sectors are excluded. Funds must have exhibited performance over a five-year period, and management groups must have at least three qualifying funds to be classified as a ‘group’ for the purposes of this award.

Unit Trust Manager

Our third award seeks to identify the fund that has outperformed its sector by the greatest margin over the 12 months to 31 August 2007. Each fund is again measured against funds with similar investment objectives. The shortlist comprises the top funds in each IMA sector that have outperformed their sector averages to the greatest degree.

Most Consistent Unit Trust

This award compares one-year relative performance over a five-year period to 31 August 2007. One-year performance figures were run on a three-month rolling basis over five years, to find the funds that had the most consistently high placings within their IMA sectors over every one of these periods. Qualification for the shortlist was restricted to a maximum of two top-performing trusts from each sector.

Investment Trust Awards

Investment Trust Management Group

Our main award measures the performance of all the investment trust portfolios run by each investment group against their peers over a period of five years to 31 August 2007.

To qualify, a group must have managed at least three investment trusts and done so for a minimum of three years. Financial Express examined each trust’s NAV total return over the five years to 31 August 2007 and compared each trust with its relevant benchmark index. A note was then taken of each trust’s relative performance and an average relative performance calculated.

Generalist Investment Trust

This award is based on five-year NAV performance, again to 31 August 2007. ‘Generalist’ is taken to mean a trust with a broad investment policy and a simple share structure. Funds specialising in particular markets or sectors are excluded, as are most split-capital investment trusts, although splits with an identifiable general investment brief, preferably with packaged units, are included.

Specialist Investment Trust

This award is calculated on the same basis as Best Generalist Trust but excludes generalist trusts and covers trusts with specialist sector or geographical mandates. Performance is measured on five-year NAV figures and qualification for the shortlist was restricted to a maximum of two top-performing trusts from each AIC sector.

Most Consistent Investment Trust

This award compares one-year relative performance over a five-year period to 31 August 2007. Financial Express has ranked all the shares in the investment trust universe over one year for 2002/03, 2003/04, 2004/05, 2005/06 and 2006/07 on the basis of their one-year NAV total return and then used these ranking positions to establish an average ranking number. The lower this number, the higher the ranking of the fund.

What Investment Fund Management Awards panellists

Unit Trust Awards

• Donna Bradshaw, financial planning strategist, IFG Group
• Anna Bowes, investments manager, AWD Chase de Vere
• Gill Cardy, principal, Professional Partnerships
• James Davies, investment research manager, Chartwell Group
• Martyn Ingram, director, Independent Portfolio Managers
• Dan Kemp, head of fund research, Williams de Broë
• John Monaghan, discretionary investment manager, Origen

Investment Trust Awards

• Alan Beaney, head of investment, Principal Investment Management
• Charles Cade, head of research, WINS Investment Companies Research
• Tim Cockerill, head of research, Rowan & Co
• Nick Greenwood, head of investment trusts, iimia
• John Moore, divisional director, Bell Lawrie
• Nick Sketch, investment trust analyst, Rensburg Sheppards
• Nick Roberts, fund research analyst, Williams de Broë