Since its launch in 2017, Tellworth Investments has been making a big splash. Set up by veteran Schroders duo Paul Marriage and John Warren, the London boutique has attracted an ever-expanding fanbase of fund buyers attracted by its long/short and small-cap focus.
Seb Jory (pictured) is perhaps one of the outfit’s lesser-known names but his low volatility Tellworth UK Select Fund has been quietly shooting the lights out.
- In December 2019, Seb Jory and John Warren took over management of the low net, L/S UK equity fund from Sanditon Asset Management.
- The strategy combines bottom up stock picking with a data driven business cycle approach, focusing on UK companies >£500m.
- The fund presents a typical gross exposure of 110-150% and a beta adjusted net of -/+ 10%.
In an article on Trustnet August 2022, Scott Spencer, investment manager in Columbia Threadneedle’s multi-manager team, chose Tellworth UK Select as on e of the “experts’ favourites” for 2022.
Seb Jory, the fund’s co-portfolio manager, has earned praise for his methods to collect and use data. In particular, he contributed to the development of several models to improve the forecasting of UK economic data in the wake of the Brexit vote in 2016, which today constitute the basis of his analyses.
Moreover, Jory makes use of data-driven techniques to gain insights at company level which, when combined with fundamental stock selection analysis, are used for idea generation on both long and short stock ideas, Spencer observed.
The £300m absolute return fund is typically market-neutral with factor risk actively monitored and controlled, meaning that the vast majority of returns will be driven by stock selection on both the long and short book.
“With its alpha-driven approach the fund is a good diversifier in portfolios compared to many other equity-based absolute return funds which carry a semi-permanent net long position and therefore a meaningful correlation to equities,” Spencer added.
“Given the current market backdrop, we think this market-neutral approach will continue to be pertinent in the coming quarters.”
