Fidelity Global Special Situations is run by Jeremy Podger and Jamie Harvey and is made up predominantly of larger companies. Jeremy and Jamie use the breadth of Fidelity's global research team to highlight what they see as being the best ideas from around the world. Holdings fall into one of three categories, forming a blended portfolio that can deliver consistently through all market conditions.
Our opinion
Jeremy has an excellent track record of adding value throughout his career. Fidelity Global Special Situations has been no exception. It has a solid but flexible process and makes excellent use of Fidelity's global analyst team. Although the fund's risk is carefully managed, it has consistently been one of the top long-term performers in its sector.
Company description
Fidelity International is a financial services corporation established in 1969. With offices in more than 20 countries, its product range spans mutual funds, defined contribution pensions, segregated portfolios and multi-manager offerings. Awarded the Elite Equities Provider rating in 2017, 2019 and 2020, Fidelity compensates managers on long-term performance, illustrating its intention to align interests with clients.
Fund manager
Jeremy Podger is one of the most experienced global fund managers in the industry. He has been managing funds since 1987. Jeremy previously worked at Investec and then Threadneedle, where he ran the Global Select fund from 2003. He left to join Fidelity and manage the Global Special Situations fund in 2012. His performance throughout his career has been consistently excellent. Jamie Harvey joined the fund as Associate Portfolio Manager in September 2019. He joined Fidelity in March 2013 as an equity analyst on their European team, moving to the global equity team in 2018, working alongside Jeremy Podger. Jamie started his career at Credit Suisse before moving to health care research at Berenberg. He holds a first class degree in Biological Sciences from Oxford University.
Our flexible, unconstrained approach effectively combines growth and value characteristics and provides the potential to capture returns across a wide range of economic and market conditions.
Jeremy PodgerFund manager
Investment process
Jeremy and Jamie are pragmatic managers who do not stick too rigidly to one particular investment style. While they are aware of macroeconomic events, their ideas are driven at the stock level by Fidelity's large team of global analysts. Investments fall into one of three buckets: corporate change - shorter-term investments which take advantage of corporate restructuring or initial public offerings (new stocks coming to the market); exceptional value – cheap stocks which have a potential to grow earnings; and unique businesses – companies with a dominant position within their industries, which should be able to grow for many years to come.
ESG
ESG - Integrated
While this fund does not have a sustainable strategy, the managers, Jeremy Podger and Jamie Harvey, are ESG-aware. They work closely with analysts and the ESG team to evaluate ESG factors throughout the process and are believers in sustainability, both as a matter of principle and as a key driver of investment returns. As such, the team strives to gain an in-depth understanding of the relevant ESG issues applicable to their investments through the bottom-up research process, company engagement, active ownership and industry collaboration. Overall, the portfolio management team believes integrating ESG requires a holistic approach and is not simply a function of investing in those companies with strong ESG characteristics while avoiding those with poor ESG scores. The direction of travel matters and, as shareholders, they believe they can influence positive change for improved investor outcomes.
Risk
Jeremy and Jamie are conscious of the fund’s benchmark and will therefore have only modest differences between sectors or geographies. Fidelity Global Special Situations is very well diversified, with 100 to 150 holdings. This limits the impact of any one stock on the fund's performance. The three buckets approach will also mean that the fund will not be exposed to any one investment style.
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