Allianz UK Listed Opportunities

Allianz UK Listed Opportunities is a contrarian value UK equity fund that invests in UK businesses of all sizes. The manager seeks out cheap companies with a margin of safety and is not afraid to go against the grain.

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Our Opinion
Fund Managers
Key Facts
Fund Performance
Risk
Company Description
Investment process
ESG

Our Opinion

This fund has a solid value strategy and a clear process that has consistently worked over many years. We like the manager’s flexible pragmatic nature, and the fund never strays too far from its core value principles. The fund has a good long-term track record despite the historic the fact that value strategies have struggled more than growth since the great financial crisis. We expect the fund to continue its success under new lead manager, Richard Knight.

Fund Managers

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Fund Managers

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Richard Knight, Lead Manager Richard is the co-manager of the Allianz UK Listed Equity Income Fund and deputy manager of the Allianz UK Listed Opportunities Fund. He specializes in UK equity income and value portfolios as part of the European Value & Income Investment Style Team. Richard joined Allianz in 2014 through the Global Graduate Program, initially working as an analyst covering European media and telecommunications. He moved to the European Value & Income team in early 2018 and took on his current co-management roles in 2020. Richard holds a degree in History and Politics from Oxford and a master's in Global Economic History from LSE. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Simon Gergel, Deputy Manager Simon is the Chief Investment Officer for UK Equities and leads the Value & Income Investment Style Team. He manages The Merchants Trust plc, co-manages the Allianz UK Listed Equity Income Fund, and is the deputy manager of the Allianz UK Listed Opportunities Fund. Simon joined AllianzGI in April 2006 from HSBC Halbis Partners, where he was Head of Institutional UK Equities and managed the HSBC Income Funds with £950 million in assets. Before HSBC, he was an Executive Director at Phillips & Drew Fund Management (a UBS subsidiary), overseeing £1 billion in pension fund assets and £500 million in UK equity assets. Simon graduated with an MA (Hons) Cantab in Mathematics from Cambridge University in 1987 and is an Associate of the CFA Society of the UK.

Richard Knight, Lead Manager Richard is the co-manager of the Allianz UK Listed Equity Income Fund and deputy manager of the Allianz UK Listed Opportunities Fund. He specializes in UK equity income and value portfolios as part of the European Value & Income Investment Style Team. Richard joined Allianz in 2014 through the Global Graduate Program, initially working as an analyst covering European media and telecommunications. He moved to the European Value & Income team in early 2018 and took on his current co-management roles in 2020. Richard holds a degree in History and Politics from Oxford and a master's in Global Economic History from LSE. He is also a CFA charterholder.

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Simon Gergel, Deputy Manager Simon is the Chief Investment Officer for UK Equities and leads the Value & Income Investment Style Team. He manages The Merchants Trust plc, co-manages the Allianz UK Listed Equity Income Fund, and is the deputy manager of the Allianz UK Listed Opportunities Fund. Simon joined AllianzGI in April 2006 from HSBC Halbis Partners, where he was Head of Institutional UK Equities and managed the HSBC Income Funds with £950 million in assets. Before HSBC, he was an Executive Director at Phillips & Drew Fund Management (a UBS subsidiary), overseeing £1 billion in pension fund assets and £500 million in UK equity assets. Simon graduated with an MA (Hons) Cantab in Mathematics from Cambridge University in 1987 and is an Associate of the CFA Society of the UK.

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Key Facts

Asset type Equity

Annual Income (Historic) -

Sector UK All Companies

Gearing-

Fund Size-

Fund Manager Start Date 01 September 2022

Ongoing Charges Figure (OCF) -

Annual Management Charge (AMC) -

Fund Performance

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Risk

The fund is quite concentrated so individual stock selection will influence performance. It is an all-cap strategy and typically has a high proportion in mid- and small-caps, which can be more volatile than their large-cap peers. Given its clear style, performance can be quite lumpy. The fund has had large drawdowns in the past and has historically been about as volatile as the index.

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Risk: 7

Company Description

Allianz Global Investors (AllianzGI) is an investment division of Allianz Asset Management AG, a wholly owned subsidiary of Allianz SE, one of the world’s largest financial services providers.AllianzGI employs over 700 investment professionals in 23 offices worldwide and manages GBP 556 billion in assets for a mixture of both retail and institutional clients, across equities, fixed income, multi-asset and alternative investments. Fixed income is the largest portion, accounting for about £180bn of assets under management. AllianzGI was awarded the Elite Provider rating for Strategic Bonds in 2020 and China/Greater China Equities in 2021.

Fund Performance

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Risk

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The fund is quite concentrated so individual stock selection will influence performance. It is an all-cap strategy and typically has a high proportion in mid- and small-caps, which can be more volatile than their large-cap peers. Given its clear style, performance can be quite lumpy. The fund has had large drawdowns in the past and has historically been about as volatile as the index.

Investment process

This is a high-conviction strategy based on the simple but proven idea of buying cheap companies trading below their fair value. The team believes that the psychology of markets has always created opportunities – it excessively bids up shares on good news and excessively sells them on bad news. The team believes that actual intrinsic value remains much more stable than share prices and this presents opportunity for the disciplined investor.

The fund seeks to buy cheap stocks with a margin of safety. It is contrarian, opportunistic and concentrated. However, the fund's philosophy is pragmatic, and rather than simply trying to buy every single cheap stock, the team takes a more nuanced ‘value-driven approach’. This has allowed the fund to achieve performance in different market conditions.

Being cheap is never enough by itself and the team conducts detailed fundamental analysis on companies before it has the confidence to take a position. A range of factors are included in the analysis, including balance sheet strength, management quality and the company’s competitive advantage. This analysis helps the team to find the best risk reward opportunities.

The team also considers themes which are driving the companies it invests in. Themes can be long-term positive but, interestingly, they can also be headwinds which the team believes the market has mispriced, such as the shift away from fossil fuels.

Initial ideas are generated from internal screens or external broker analysis. If an idea looks interesting, further detailed analysis is conducted. Stocks tend to fall into one of three buckets. The first is classic value stocks - exploiting market sentiment in fundamentally sound business. The second is franchise – strong growth businesses at reasonable prices – and the third is special situations or uncorrelated ideas with unique catalysts. The best ideas then go into the portfolio.

Risk

The fund is quite concentrated so individual stock selection will influence performance. It is an all-cap strategy and typically has a high proportion in mid- and small-caps, which can be more volatile than their large-cap peers. Given its clear style, performance can be quite lumpy. The fund has had large drawdowns in the past and has historically been about as volatile as the index.

ESG

Unlike some value investors, the team does not believe in dismissing ESG issues out of hand. It looks to invest in companies where ESG issues are improving and not yet priced in. This requires a high level of fundamental analysis. ESG factors are incorporated into all investment decisions. There are firm-wide exclusions on investments in coal and controversial weapons stocks.

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