Meet The Manager - James Henderson

James Henderson joined Henderson Global Investors in 1984 and has managed Henderson Opportunities Trust since January 2007. Involved with investment trusts throughout his career, James has an aggressive, stock picking investment style which is value driven and he seeks out opportunities among large, medium and small companies. James has also managed the highly successful long-term performance of Lowland Investment Company since 1990.

Fund Manager's Commentary  – January 2012

The New Year has started on a very positive note for equity markets around the world. Why? The economic outlook has not really improved dramatically but, for the moment at least, the bad news is no worse than expected and good news, particularly around the growth of the US economy and political willingness to deliver a solution to the Eurozone crisis, has brought some welcome relief. In addition comments from the US Federal Reserve that interest rates would stay very low until at least 2014, and Chinese manufacturing data which showed a move back into positive territory, added to the feeling of optimism. This has resulted in most equity markets rising as defensive shares have been sold and higher risk cyclical or growth shares have been bought. In a flash the market has effectively gone from “risk off” to “risk on”.

In January we opened new positions in London Mining, an emerging iron ore producer based in Sierra Leone, Aveva Group, a global leader in 3D design for the energy and power generation markets and Premier Oil, a mid tier internationally diversified explorer with a growing production profile and an active drilling programme. We also raised our position in British Aerospace where we feel recent weakness due to defence budget cuts is overdone. We have sold a small amount of IP Group to part fund the above and have also rationalised a number of holdings where we felt future returns no longer justified retention.

The net asset value rose by 6.5%, the FTSE100 Index rose by 2.1%, while small caps rose by 8.0% (all including income). This divergence of performance shows how small companies are considered as riskier investments and benefit at times when confidence returns.

Gearing remained virtually unchanged on the month as investments made were offset by the rise in share prices.