Beagles: Why I refuse to invest in 'bond lookalikes'

JO Hambro Capital Management's Clive Beagles has blamed an underweight in defensive stocks for the underperformance of the £2.7bn UK Equity Income fund last year but said he refuses to invest in "bond lookalikes".

Beagles' fund, which he runs with James Lowen, remains in the top quartile of the IA UK Equity Income sector over three and five years, but over the 12 months to the 30 January it returned 3.5% compared to the average return of 8.5%, according to Morningstar. Beagles (pictured) said: "Performance in 2014 was flat against the index, which was moderately disappointing as most UK equity income funds outperformed, but we did not have as many bond lookalikes as the others. "At the beginning of 2013, 10-year government bond yields were at 2% and everyone was talking about rates going up. Th...