Ann: Funds Under Management - November 2021, page-70

@AJ7

Because invariably they all fall in and out of favour. Most managers follow a thematic, and struggle to adapt/pivot as investment markets change. Once they have a philosophy, and market that philosophy is quite difficult to change it.

You may ask, well why don't they just be agnostic and focus on absolute performance? The answer is because it's too difficult to stand out from the crowd without having a niche.

Being a listed fund manager, also creates a real conflict issue. You can't get shareholders the best returns without fleecing your captive FUM. You also cant grow FUM by investing in tiny pockets, which is why we end up seeing a style bias towards large and megacap companies when managers have large FUM.

This is why I tend to favour smaller boutique managers for specific thematic. I have perhaps wrongly perceived magellan's ambitions to be a hybrid between Berkshire with JP Morgan IB banking capabilities (Barrenjoey and PE investments. I believe that's the vision, just not sure if they get there.