Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Fidelity China Special

Three funds with new managers at the helm, three funds that were highest rated for last year, three funds coming of age and a trio hoping for better fortunes for their asset class are all “best of breed” in their sector and worth watching for 2021, according to FundCalibre.

Baillie Gifford American was the best performing fund in 2020, FundCalibre said, a year where the challenges were “almost biblical at times”.

“Run by a team of four co-managers who focus on the small number of companies that create exceptional returns, it returned 122% in 2020 versus 16% for the average peer,” said FundCalibre’s Darius McDermott

PLC (), also managed by Baillie Gifford, doubled its share price and was the second best performing product rated Elite by FundCalibe.

With its largest holding being Tesla, a stock that rose around 600% in 2020, its strong performance is no surprise, with a return of 110% versus 15% for the average peer.

Another investment trust was third best performer, ().

“Run by Dale Nicholls, this trust has a bias towards small and medium-sized companies and offers investors direct exposure to the China growth story,” says McDermott, noting a 69% return in 2020 compared to a sector average of 28%.

Nicholls, who took over from UK star fund manager Anthony Bolton six years ago, has more than doubled investors’ cash since he took over, something that investors will be hoping at a number of funds where long-time fund managers stepped down last year, though.

The trio selected by FundCalibre have well-signaled succession planning and lengthy handover processes, including at the open-ended Marlborough Special Situations, which has been run by Giles Hargreaves since 1998.

It was the best performing fund in its sector over his tenure, returning 3,760% compared with 641% for its average peer.

Hargreaves hands over the fund to Eustace Santa Barbara, who has co-managed the fund since 2014, and Guy Feld, his co-manager on Marlborough UK Micro-Cap Growth fund, which has also been handed over to the same duo.

European Dynamic’s Alister Hibbert, who had run the fund since March 2008, handed the management of this fund to Giles Rothbarth at the end of 2020.

Hibbert’s return of 430% over his tenure, compared to 131% for the average peer, was also the best performing fund in the sector.

Rothbarth has been co-manager since 2019 and is “an impressive manager from a very strong team”, but due to his short tenure, FundCalibre has moved its rating from Elite to ‘Elite Radar’.

Schroder Asian Alpha Plus manager Matthew Dobbs, who is retiring after nearly four decades at the firm, is handing over this fund to Richard Sennitt in March 2021.

Sennitt is an ‘Elite’ rated manager of Schroder’s Asian Income fund and, having worked alongside Dobbs for many years, will run it in the same way and with the same process.

Coming of age

“A third anniversary is a real milestone in the investment world, as three years is…