Leading fund managers have been recognised as ‘best in class’ in the annual awards of independent fund rating agency RSMR.

The ‘R’ Awards are presented each year to fund managers who meet RSMR's awards criteria.

This year RSMR said the winners had all managed to overcome a difficult year to produce robust performance.

The awards were presented last night at Yorkshire-based RSMR’s flagship Annual Investment Conference in Harrogate.

Among the fund winners were Invesco UK Opportunities, which won Best UK Equity Fund, and Ninety One Global Special Situations, which won Best Global Equity Fund. Invesco won Best Equity Group with Fidelity receiving a Highly Commended accolade in the same category.

Royal London’s Sustainable Leaders Trust won Best Responsible Fund and M&G Optimal Income won Best Fixed Interest Fund.

Royal London’s Sustainable Leaders Trust wins Best Responsible Fund. Ken Rayner, CEO of RSMR, presents the R Award to Mike Fox, head of sustainable investments and fund manager, Royal London Sustainable funds, at Royal London Asset Management

M&G Optimal Income wins Best Fixed Interest Fund. Ken Rayner, CEO of RSMR, presents the R Award to David Halfacre, head of partnerships sales director at M&G Investments  

For the last 10 years RSMR has presented the R Awards to fund groups offering strategies the agency considers to be 'best in class' versus their peers.

RSMR applies quantitative filters to funds from their rated lists, over discrete and cumulative periods, to filter and produce a short list. The list is then reviewed by the RSMR research team who apply their own qualitative views to discuss and debate each of the award categories. The resulting output of this discussion is a highly commended and winning fund or group for each award.

Ken Rayner, CEO of RSMR, said: “It’s been a difficult period for investment firms with returns concentrated in a relatively small number of sectors and stocks, but there are managers that have overcome many of these hurdles to deliver robust returns. We feel it’s appropriate to acknowledge this with the presentation of an R Award at our flagship conference in Harrogate."

Winners of ‘R’ Awards 2023 

 Source: RSMR