Meet The Manager - Tim Stevenson

Tim Stevenson joined Henderson Global Investors in 1986 and has been managing European portfolios since 1984. He has been involved in Henderson EuroTrust plc since its launch in 1992 and has been manager since October 1994. He also manages the European portfolios of The Bankers Investment Trust PLC and the Law Debenture Corporation plc. He describes his investment style as stock picking with a growth bias. 

Fund Manager's Commentary - December 2011

With yet more economic uncertainty and another ‘European summit to finally solve the eurozone’s problems’, it is perhaps surprising that European markets made any progress in December.

In some ways progress has been made; the announcement by the European Central Bank of a long-term refinancing operation has already provided euro-based banks €489bn of three-year money at only 1% in its first tranche (there will be another opportunity in February). The main significance of this, is that it is yet another measure to shore up banks – the bad news being that they still need it, and the good news being that there are many ways to create solutions to this financial morass (or at least buy time). The second bit of good news could be the decision by all euro members to sign up to a firm and definite fiscal discipline agreement.

Good performance was seen by Deutsche Post, Royal Dutch and Roche during the month; the poor performers included Deutsche Boerse, SAP and Deutsche Telekom – all affected by their own merger or attempted merger activity.

During the month we sold the last of Givaudan, which has been underperforming for some time due to rising input costs. We returned to shipping and oil company Maersk in expectations that it will gain more market share in containers, and remains the most efficient company in that tough industry, and also since we feel its oil assets are under-appreciated by the market. We also bought Vivendi again, as we feel that the media and telecom conglomerate is far better managed than has historically been the case, and yet the valuation gives it no credit for reasonable growth prospects.

There is little reason for European markets to start 2012 in a buoyant mode. Valuations are attractive, but the economic situation will remain very tough for at least the next six to nine months in our view.