The Luxembourg-domiciled fund, which launched on 31 January 2012, will invest in global government bonds, using a ‘fundamental framework’ to determine an issuer’s ability and willingness to honour its debt obligations.

In doing so, the fund will make no distinction between developed and emerging market sovereign borrowers, according to Pictet.

The asset manager has positioned the fund as an alternative to other bond strategies that rely on traditional market-cap weighted fixed income benchmarks, which it claimed suffer from ‘a number of structural flaws’.

‘A conventional debt-weighted index forces investors to buy the bonds of sovereigns that borrow the most, irrespective of whether that debt burden is sustainable over the long term,’ Pictet said in a statement.

The firm added that this also limits currency diversification.

Sebastian Eisinger, head of fixed income, commented, ‘As an alternative or as a substitute to traditional investing, investors should start by analysing the fundamentals.

‘Only then will they be able to reduce the risks and maximise the opportunities that are emerging in this period of rapid change for the world economy.’

Lead manager Benhaim is co-head of global and regional bonds at the group and has been managing its World Government Bonds fund since January 2009.

The wealth management group revealed that profit before tax on an IFRS basis jumped 30 per cent, from £84.2 million in 2010.

As the group includes a UK life assurance company, it incurs tax on behalf of policyholders. The IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) result is reported gross of both policyholder and shareholder tax.

However, overall pre-tax profit plummeted to £21.3 million, down from £161.9 million in 2010, figures showed.

In the year to 31 December 2011 the group saw new business profit soar 13 per cent to £246 million, compared to £217.8 million the previous year.

Chief executive David Bellamy (pictured) said that the 10 per cent rise in net inflows of funds to £3.3 billion took funds under management to £28.5 billion last year, up 6 per cent on 2010 when funds under management totalled £27 billion.

Bellamy explained that the increase in funds under management had enabled the group to grow dividends by 33 per cent in each of the last two years.

St James’s Place has proposed a final dividend of 4.8p, up 21 per cent on the 2010 dividend of 3.975p, and a full-year dividend of 8.0p, compared to 6.0p the prior year.

Bellamy commented that it had been a record year for the company in terms of new business, operating profit and funds under management.

‘This performance, in market conditions that were far from helpful, is a testament to the strength of the partnership and the breadth of our investment proposition,’ he added.

Bellamy said he was confident that the group would continue to achieve its more than 15 per cent per annum targets over the long term.

BlackRock announced that Little, who is director and portfolio manager on its UK equity team, would be taking over as sole manager with effect from 1 March 2012.

The management shake-up follows a period of underperformance for the UK fund, which sits in the IMA UK All Companies sector and has been under Lyttleton’s management since September 2001.

Over one year, the fund has returned investors just £874 on an initial £1,000 investment, and over five years the amount returned is £893 based on £1,000 invested, meaning that it is in the bottom quartile in both periods, according to FE Trustnet.

Little joined Lyttleton on the fund in 2011, having managed UK equity mandates for the company’s institutional clients for more than seven years.

BlackRock confirmed that Lyttleton would continue to manage its UK Dynamic fund and co-manage its UK Absolute Alpha fund alongside Nick Osborne.

Tony Stenning, head of UK retail at BlackRock, said, ‘Nick’s appointment to sole manager is a reflection of his strong track record of managing UK equity mandates and the importance of the core offering in the BlackRock UK equity product range.

‘He has a long track record of success and a strong reputation amongst the investor community for his stockpicking talent and with Nick as sole manager we are able to continue to provide a broad and diverse range of product solutions that meet our clients’ needs,’ Stenning added.

Earlier this month, Lyttleton was warned that the clock was ticking for his UK Absolute Alpha fund, having reported a one-year loss of 7 per cent.

Hargreaves Lansdown has already removed the fund from its Wealth 150 list of recommended funds and expressed disappointment at its performance last year.

The investment adviser, in its biannual 'Spot the Dog' report of open-ended funds, has identified 44 so-called ‘dog’ funds that have underperformed their benchmarks by at least 10 per cent cumulatively over three years.

The numbers have dropped from the August 2011 report, which saw 94 funds, managing £13.78 billion, in the doghouse.

Scottish Widows won the dubious honour of topping the ‘dog assets under management’ table, with four funds severely underperforming, managing a total of £2.28 billion, a quarter of all Scottish Widows' assets.

The underperforming funds were the Scottish Widows Global Select Growth, SWIP UK Income, Scottish Widows UK Growth and Scottish Widows UK Equity High Income.

The Bestinvest report covers only a small selection of funds, ignoring insurance, offshore, institutional and pension funds, funds with no three-year track record, the fixed interest, property and absolute return sectors, as well as several specialist sectors such as fund of funds and multi-manager.

Other large ‘dog’ funds were the £1.19 billion M&G Dividend fund, the £1.17 billion Schroder UK Mid 250 fund and the £730 million Standard Life UK Equity High Income fund.

Adrian Lowcock, senior investment adviser at Bestinvest, commented, ‘The overall value of assets invested in “dog” funds has fallen from its high in 2011. The report now excludes the last six months of 2008 when financial markets froze.

‘Unfortunately there are still some managers who have not woken up to the new market conditions.’

Lowcock added, ‘Charges remain a key concern to investors and, with "dog" fund managers taking home £133 million a year, nearly £400 million over the three years of underperformance, it is hardly surprising investors are concerned about fees.

‘Investors simply can’t afford to leave their precious savings languishing in "dog" funds and wait for the fund managers to do something about it.’

The wealth manager reported that profits were up in the year to 31 December 2011, on £30.1 million the previous year, while basic earnings per share increased 34 per cent to 66.7p from 49.8p in 2010.

In its trading statement, Rathbones revealed that funds under management rose to £15.85 billion last year, up 1.4 per cent from £15.63 billion at 31 December 2010.

The total net annual growth rate of funds under management for Rathbone Investment Management was 8 per cent in 2011, down from 10 per cent in 2010.

This comprised £0.31 billion of acquired inflows, compared to £0.60 billion in 2010, and £0.79 billion of net organic growth, against £0.64 billion in 2010.

The underlying net organic growth rate was equal with the previous year at 5 per cent.

Underlying net operating income in Rathbone Investment Management ended the year up 13 per cent to £135.1 million, from £119.8 million a year earlier, excluding gains on disposal of financial securities of £1.1 million in 2011.

Chief executive of Rathbone Brothers Andy Pomfret (pictured) said the company had achieved an increase in profits despite ‘often difficult market conditions’.

He added that Rathbones remained optimistic about the prospects for 2012 after the UK equity market ended last year on a ‘more positive note’.

‘There is no doubt that the uncertainties over Europe persist but these are balanced by indications that the world economy continues to grow and some developed economies are showing small signs of improvement, particularly the USA.’

Pomfret continued, ‘We are seeing signs of underlying cost inflation but we will continue to invest in and grow our business.’

The board has recommended a final dividend of 29p for 2011, up from 28p in 2010, making a total of 46p for the year.

The Invesco Perpetual Balanced Risk 6, 8 and 10 funds opened today and will be run by the Invesco Global Asset Allocation team in Atlanta, which manages more than $12.2 billion (£7.7 billion) of assets.

The new funds, which sit in the IMA Specialist sector, aim to provide long-term, equity-like returns but with reduced volatility.

Each name reflects the level of volatility being targeted, so the Balanced Risk Fund 6 will aim for 6 per cent average volatility over a full market cycle, for example.

The investment team plans to capture 15 to 20 per cent of the funds’ target return through the use of active positioning.

Invesco acknowledged that traditional balanced or multi-asset solutions usually combine the defensive properties of bonds with the growth potential of equities.

However, the team will provide managed exposure to three asset classes – equities, bonds and commodities – in its new range in the belief that equities often represent a disproportionate amount of portfolio risk due to their volatility.

Within those asset classes, the funds will take exposure to 16 underlying assets.

Wolle, chief investment officer of the Invesco Global Asset Allocation team, explained, ‘We seek to build portfolios by gaining exposure to low correlation assets that can offer diversification in every economic environment.

‘In a period of non-inflationary growth, developed equities are likely to perform well. In a recession the fund’s bond exposure is designed to preserve portfolio value.

‘And during times of inflationary growth, commodities have traditionally performed well,’ he added.

Exposure to equities will be drawn from the FTSE 100, S&P 500, EuroStoxx, Topix, Russell 200 and Hang Seng, while exposure to commodities will take the form of crude oil, gold, diversified agriculture and copper.

US treasuries, German bunds, UK gilts, Canadian government bonds, Japan government bonds and Australian government bonds will provide the funds’ exposure to bonds.

Minimum investment in the funds is £500 and the annual management charge is 1.25 per cent.

Pinggera’s co-manager, Steve Waddington, will now take full control of Insight’s multi-asset funds, backed by a team of six fund managers.
 
The £59 million Insight Diversified Dynamic Return fund, of which Pinggera was lead manager, has consistently underperformed its peer group, losing nearly 5 per cent in the last year.

He was also co-manager of the Diversified High Income, Diversified Target Return, UK Dynamic Managed and the Wealthbuilder Balanced funds.

The £132.2 million Target Return fund, which buys into a fund and shorts that fund’s benchmark, thereby isolating the fund manager’s performance, has outperformed the Absolute Return sector in the three years Pinggera was co-manager, with a 15.7 per cent return over the last three years.

Pinggera joined Insight in January 2009 having previously been head of multi-asset class solutions at Credit Suisse.

Matthew Merritt, head of Insight’s multi-asset strategy, said, ‘Insight has experienced significant growth in its multi-asset business.

‘Mike made a meaningful contribution to our business over the last three years and we wish him well in his future endeavours.’

NAV increased 3.49 per cent in the quarter ended 31 December 2011, against the benchmark, which was up 8.36 per cent.

However, the trust’s discount moved from 3.93 per cent at the end of last year, to 0.54 per cent at 15 February 2012.

Fidelity’s China Special Situations has struggled since its launch in April 2010 there were no comments from Bolton himself about its performance in the latest interim management statement.

Manager Bolton reduced the investment trust’s gearing, from 126.07 per cent at the end of December, to 120.10 per cent on 15 February 2012.

Over the same period, total assets rose to £636.9 million, from £571.1 million.

In the last quarter of 2011, the manager made a number of changes to the trust, reducing the portfolio’s exposure to the financials sector from 26.1 per cent at 30 September last year, to 25.4 per cent.

However, consumer discretionary accounted for 28.4 per cent of the portfolio at the end of December, up from 25.9 per cent at 30 September.

Exposure to telecom services and consumer staples remained the same, but Bolton decreased its weighting in the healthcare sector from 9.4 per cent to 8.7 per cent in the last quarter, and in the IT sector from 9.2 per cent to 7.0 per cent.

Lauren Romeo took over as lead manager of the fund in May last year, having been co-manager since its launch in March 2004, and is part of Royce & Associates, a US subsidiary of Legg Mason.

Richard Troue of Hargreaves Lansdown said her approach sees her invest in companies that have the ability to survive in all market environments, ‘rather than letting prevailing economic conditions dictate her decisions’.

‘During 2011’s stock market volatility she focused on her “plant and harvest” approach, using share price falls to invest in attractive businesses that could reap rewards over the longer term,’ explained Troue.

‘This included adding to holdings in technology companies, where she is positive on the long-term outlook for spending by businesses and consumers, and healthcare companies.’

Troue added that Romeo believes the supply of precious metals such as gold and silver has not kept up with demand and that strong cash flow in the sector could lead to increased dividend payments.

With this in mind, two of the portfolio’s top ten holdings are Pan American Silver and Allied Nevada Gold, accounting for 1.72 per cent and 1.69 per cent respectively, according to FE Trustnet.

Industrial businesses account for just over 20 per cent of the fund, with Romeo seeking those companies that are able to generate revenue overseas in addition to capitalising on the US economy recovery.

Troue concluded, ‘This fund is run by an experienced team who have built an impressive track record.

‘The fund has delivered growth of 103 per cent since launch in 2004 compared to 76 per cent for its benchmark, the Russell 2000 Index, though past performance is not a guide to future returns.’