Geoff Paton, the Ignis international global technology fund manager will invest in companies with above average growth prospects in the information technology sector. The fund will also have the flexibility to invest in technology areas such as medical technology, biotech and alternative energy.
The fund will not be constrained geographically or by index weightings or by market capitalisation, allowing Paton to select from the broadest possible pool of stocks to generate the best possible returns for investors.
Paton, currently a member of the Ignis asset management US equity team, previously managed technology funds at Abbey National and Henderson Global Investors before joining Ignis in 2009.
He said that the company was launching the fund ahead of what promised to be an exciting time for the sector.
’Technology stocks can be broadly classified into two camps - legacy companies and new age companies. This year, legacy companies have struggled to perform despite, for the most part, significantly rising earnings estimates over the course of the last year. This has left many legacy companies such as IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Dell at very low valuations. New age technology stocks are those exploiting trends such as cloud computing and the mobile internet. We will be particularly focussed on this latter category of stocks,’ he said.
Ignis plans to build a credible track record before seeking UK and Continental European registration for the fund. Until it has done so, and until the fund is registered for broader distribution, Ignis will refrain from actively promoting it to third party investors.
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