Neptune Investment Management arrived with a fanfare to our awards in 2007. Established in 2002 by chief investment officer Robin Geffen as an independent and privately owned investment house, this is the first year that Neptune has fully qualified for our group awards. Having had three of the top five funds in last year’s Unit Trust Manager category, this year it was nearly a clean sweep, with Neptune winning the Unit Trust Manager and Most Consistent Unit Trust awards as well as coming third in the overall group category.

A clear investment process

Robin Geffen observes that ‘The Neptune investment philosophy has been at the core of our outperformance and is driven primarily by the belief that equities should be viewed by the global industry sector rather than with the more traditional regional, index-driven approach.’

James Davies of Chartwell Group feels that Neptune is ‘An investment house that applies a very consistent investment philosophy across all its funds. There are good communications between all its managers. As an investment house, Neptune has quite a wide range of funds, but there is a relatively small group of people managing them and I think that shows through in the performance.’

And Gill Cardy of Professional Partnerships says that ‘Neptune is a name that has emerged to prominence over the past few years, as it has been providing excellent returns for investors in its areas of key expertise and experience.’

Strong competition

Considering the other nominated companies, Dan Kemp of Williams de Broë notes that runner-up Artemis has delivered ‘Consistently good performance across a range of mandates’, while third-placed Jupiter deserves recognition for its ‘broad-based equity capability covering a range of investment styles’.

Martyn Ingram acknowledges that ‘Neptune achieved a very strong level of performance across its full fund range, but Jupiter’s performance across is specialist funds is as good, if not better.’

IFG Group’s Donna Bradshaw admits to finding it difficult to split the top four groups, although she ultimately favoured JPMorgan. ‘We narrowed the field down to those companies that have consistently outperformed in the specialist sectors, and JPMorgan stands out for this reason.’

Top five

1. Neptune Investment Management
2. Artemis Fund Managers
3. Jupiter UT Managers
4. JPMorgan Asset Management (UK)
5. BlackRock Investment Managers

Specialist Unit Trust Group shortlist (12 nominees)

1. Artemis Fund Managers
2. AXA Framlington Investment Management
3. BlackRock Investment Managers
4. Invesco Perpetual Fund Managers
5. JPMorgan Asset Management (UK)
6. Jupiter UT Managers
7. Marlborough Fund Managers
8. Neptune Investment Management
9. New Star Investment Funds
10. Rathbone UT Managers
11. Rensburg Fund Management
12. Standard Life Investments