WHO'S TOP OF EUROPE'S EQUITY FUNDS?
European funds are becoming a major part of the fund-managment business. The number of new funds is increasing each year. US pension funds alone will pump another $12 billion into international stocks this year, bringing their total portfolio of foreign assets to nearly $27 billion, double what it was two years ago. The growing number of Erisa fund managers attests to the competition.
Last year was highly successful for European fund managers. The strength of the dollar through most of the year helped stimulate export-led growth for European companies. This combined with a buoyant domestic demand to produce a strong showing in most markets. Because of the relatively large number of recently created European funds, we have used a short term for comparison. Ranking is based on the rate of return for the 12 months from December 31 1984.
Using this approach, the 24 funds showed encouraging results. On a one-year performance measure, 16 of the funds outperformed the Morgan Stanley Capital International European index of 41.8%. The FIF Europe fund, managed by Banque Indosuez, is at the top of Euromoney's ranking with an impressive performance growth rate of 81.3%;