Schroders' Jenny Jones, head of US small- and mid-cap equities, has admitted the US Smaller Companies fund has had a "rough year" in terms of performance, which she attributed to the fund's exposure to the healthcare sector.
Jones is underweight the healthcare sector in the £823m fund, with a 9.8% holding compared to 16.8% in the Russell 2000 index, adding it was "the worst segment of the portfolio for us". "We have really dramatically underperformed in the healthcare sector, which by and large has been the biggest detriment to the portfolio," Jones said. The manager added biotech and specialty pharma represents 54% of the total healthcare sector and over 9% of the benchmark, with 222 biotech and pharma companies in the healthcare segment of the Russell 2000, which is "problematic". Gallery: The ten mo...
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