Autumn 2025: the funds gaining and losing their Elite Ratings

Our autumn investment committee meeting brought a fresh round of updates to the FundCalibre Elite Ratings. We’ve added a number of exciting new funds demonstrating strong long-term potential, while others have moved to our Elite Radar as they enter a period of transition under new leadership. At the same time, we’ve made some difficult decisions to remove funds that no longer meet our high standards for consistent performance.

Seven funds gain Elite Ratings

Credo Dynamic — This fund is a flexible, multi-asset portfolio aiming for long-term equity-like returns with lower risk. It blends equities, bonds and alternatives, focusing on sterling assets, with equity exposure typically between 40–65%. Managers Rupert Silver and Benjamin Newton use both top-down and bottom-up analysis to capture the best risk-adjusted opportunities and can move defensively when markets turn. With an excellent performance record, outperforming the IA Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares sector since launch and returning over 70% to investors over the past five years*, this fund offers a robust and adaptable multi-asset solution.

IFSL Church House Investment Grade Fixed Interest — This fund targets steady, low-volatility income through investment-grade corporate bonds, alongside gilts and supranationals. Managed by Jeremy Wharton it focuses on quality credit selection rather than tracking a benchmark. The approach emphasises liquidity, capital preservation and consistent income, aiming to deliver reliable returns with minimal volatility. With an impressive long-term record and disciplined duration management, this fund serves as a strong, stable core holding for investors seeking predictable income and lower-risk exposure within their fixed-income portfolios. The fund has returned 11% over the past five years, compared with 1.5% for the IA Sterling Corporate Bond sector*.

JPMorgan UK Small Cap Growth & Income — Managed by Georgina Brittain and Katen Patel, this trust invests in high-quality, fast-growing UK small and mid-cap companies, combining capital growth with an enhanced dividend. Following its merger with JPMorgan Mid Cap in 2024, investors benefit from improved liquidity and a strengthened income strategy. With attractive small and mid-cap valuations, this trust remains well-positioned to capture growth from dynamic UK companies across the market-cap spectrum.

Jupiter Merian Global Equity — A long-established, quantitatively driven global equity fund investing across hundreds of companies worldwide. The systematic process uses evolving models to identify fundamentally attractive stocks, maintaining diversification across styles and sectors with tight risk controls. Managed by an experienced team, the fund has shown excellent long-term consistency, outperforming the IA Global sector over 1, 3, 5 and 10 years**. Its disciplined quant-driven approach makes it a reliable and well-balanced core global equity holding for investors seeking steady performance and diversification.

Jupiter Merian Global Absolute Return — This quant-driven long/short fund seeks positive returns uncorrelated to equity markets. Using advanced, evolving models, the team identifies opportunities to go long or short globally across styles and sectors. Despite challenges between 2018–2020, process improvements have since driven a strong performance recovery, outperforming the IA Targeted Absolute Return sector over 1, 3, 5 and 10 years**. With disciplined risk control, low market correlation and a proven record of innovation, this fund provides valuable diversification and a distinctive return profile within an absolute return strategy.

Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust — Launched in 1989, this trust has a long and successful history of investing in emerging economies. Managed by Chetan Sehgal, it focuses on high-quality businesses with strong balance sheets, robust cash flow generation and attractive valuations. His disciplined, bottom-up investment approach has delivered excellent long-term results across a range of market environments, highlighting the portfolio’s flexibility and resilience. With its proven track record and focus on quality, we believe this trust is a strong choice for investors seeking a core emerging markets holding.

T. Rowe Price Frontier Markets Equity — As the name suggests, this fund targets long-term growth through high-quality businesses in frontier markets, supported by deep local research and strong ESG oversight. The team favours a long-term, low-turnover approach, investing in companies that can thrive amid the volatility of early-stage economies. Led by Johannes Loefstrand, the fund’s disciplined process, collaborative research culture and effective risk management have helped avoid common pitfalls in this space. It offers truly differentiated exposure to fast-growing frontier economies, with low correlation to emerging and developed markets. The fund has returned 110% over the past five years, compared with 62% for the MSCI Frontier Markets index*.

Four funds join our Elite Radar

Aberdeen Asian Income Fund Limited — This trust invests in high-quality, dividend-paying companies across the Asia Pacific region, aiming for long-term income and capital growth. New manager Isaac Thong brings significant experience and is refining the portfolio to enhance total returns. With a strong historical record of performance and income delivery, the trust continues to offer appealing exposure to Asia’s dynamic dividend landscape while positioning for future growth opportunities across emerging markets.

IFSL Pinnacle Global Equity Income — A core global equity income fund investing across the corporate life cycle to deliver sustainable income and growth. The team seeks an income 20% above global equity benchmarks while minimising exposure to style, sector or regional biases. With a proven, innovative ‘Life Cycle’ process and an experienced team, this fund combines disciplined risk control with active stock selection. Although the fund is very young, we believe it’s a compelling option for investors seeking a balanced, diversified global equity income solution.

Pinnacle Life Cycle Global Equity Select — This is the team’s highest-conviction global equity strategy, built around their proven ‘Life Cycle’ process. It invests across companies of all types, focusing on stock-specific opportunities while limiting style, sector and regional risks. With a concentrated portfolio and higher tracking error, it offers strong potential for differentiated performance. Managed by a seasoned team with a history of strong stock selection, this fund has to be a consideration for anyone looking to invest in a global equity fund.

WS Zennor Japan Equity Income — An unconstrained, bottom-up Japanese equity fund focused on small and mid-cap dividend growers trading below intrinsic value. Managed by highly experienced investors James Salter and David Mitchinson, the fund combines deep research and engagement to uncover mispriced, well-capitalised businesses. By maintaining a smaller fund size, the team ensures flexibility to capture niche opportunities. The fund is off to a strong start with the managers outperforming the IA Japan sector by 13% since launch***, offering an exceptional way to access high-quality Japanese dividend growth companies.

Three funds move from Elite Rated to Elite Radar

Baillie Gifford Japanese Smaller Companies & Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon — Lead manager Praveen Kumar departed Baillie Gifford in May 2025 and has been succeeded by deputy manager Brian Lum, alongside Jared Anderson, who will help manage both the Shin Nippon Trust and the Japanese Smaller Companies fund. Following this change, we have met with Brian and understand he plans to make some adjustments to the portfolios over time. However, we believe it is appropriate to give him time to demonstrate his capabilities as lead manager, so both funds move to our Elite Radar while we assess his performance in the role.

Goldman Sachs India Equity Portfolio — Long-standing manager Hiren Dasani has left Goldman Sachs after 18 years of strong performance in Indian equities. He is succeeded by Aman Batra, head of India Equity Research since 2017 and a 15-year firm veteran. While Hiren’s departure marks a notable change, we have met with Aman and are confident in his experience. The fund moves to Elite Radar as we monitor performance.

The four funds losing their Ratings 

Baillie Gifford Japanese Income Growth — The fund has had a deteriorating AlphaQuest score and no longer passes our minimum threshold. Therefore, the team had to make the decision that it should lose its Elite Rating.

Stewart Investors funds — Fund managers David Gait and Sashi Reddy and Sujaya Desai have all left Stewart Investors. The funds impacted by this departure include: Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders; Stewart Investors Asia Pacific All Cap; and Stewart Investors Indian Subcontinent All Cap. We believe this is a significant change with all three managers having been key members since they joined. Therefore, we have made the decision to remove the rating for this fund.

*Source: FE Analytics, total returns in pounds sterling, 30 October 2020 to 31 October 2025

**Source: FE Analytics, total returns in pounds sterling, performance to 31 October 2025

***Source: FE Analytics, total returns in pounds sterling, 24 April 2023 to 31 October 2025