Prominent fund buyers huddled around the Dom Perignon recently to mark the twentieth anniversary of James Thomson taking the helm of the Rathbone Global Opportunities fund. 

Over those two decades the fund has grown from £5mn to £3.4bn (though it peaked at £4.2bn in December 2021), and is among the top quartile of performers over the past five years, as well as being the top performer from 90 funds over that 20 year time horizon.

The fund struggled in performance terms in 2022 as its growth bias counted against it during what was a profound rally in value stocks. 

It is owned by two of the allocators we cover, with no new buy or sell activity in recent years.  

Those growth holdings, with Microsoft and Nvidia among its biggest holdings, have helped the fund this year to date, and contribute the bulk of the technology exposure in the fund. 

The largest sectoral weighting is to consumer goods, meaning some of the more traditional growth stocks such as L’Oreal are in the portfolio. 

Demand from DFMs in recent years may have been muted as Rathbone Global Opportunities isn’t quite as high octane as some technology funds, but nor does it tick the value box.

It is worth watching to see if, in a higher interest rate, lower growth world, this fund catches the eye of more of the DFMs we cover.