Barclays GlobalAccess UK Opportunities Fund

If you could only invest in one UK equity fund, what would it be? Maybe a tracker fund? A tracker fund is designed to deliver similar performance to that of the market, which is why they are used by investors to give ‘core’ exposure to that particular market. But a tracker fund will never outperform the market. Only an actively managed fund has the potential to outperform the market. Although there’s no guarantee that an active fund will outperform, it can be worthwhile putting the time and effort into finding a ‘core’ fund in this part of the global economy.

Tracker funds and active funds

Tracker funds are run using computer algorithms, which means they are cheaper than the equivalent actively managed funds. This offers an attractive cost-effective option to use as a key part of a diversified portfolio.

Actively managed funds, on the other hand, are managed by a professional manager with a team of research analysts behind them. With years of experience, and usually direct access to the people running the companies they invest in, fund managers are making their investment decisions with insight that few individual investors can match.

There are charges to pay for this professional management in terms of fund fees, however the hope is that these are more than offset if the fund and its investments deliver the returns the manager hopes for, although not all active funds achieve their goal of outperforming the market.

Finding the right active fund for you

When you start looking at the UK equity fund market, you soon learn that there’s a lot of funds to choose from. There are funds that focus on large companies, funds that focus on small companies and, of course, funds that invest in medium sized companies. Some funds invest in just a handful of companies, and others invest in many hundreds of companies. There are even funds that only focus on companies that pay dividends.

As a result of these different approaches to investing, investors have a difficult decision to make. One fund that stands out from the crowd is the Barclays GlobalAccess UK Opportunities Fund, which takes a very different approach. This fund aims to give broad exposure to UK companies, but without just investing in one part of the market.

Core exposure to the UK

The Barclays GlobalAccess UK Opportunities Fund does not buy individual shares to invest in. Instead, the fund is managed by investment professionals at Barclays, whose job it is to choose world-leading, specialist fund managers to look after parts of the fund. It is then these fund managers who invest in shares. Today, the fund is managed by three fund managers – Lindsell Train, JO Hambro, and Heronbridge. Each of the managers has responsibility for about a third of the fund’s total value.

These three fund managers are very different to each other in terms of how they invest. It’s a different approach to investing in just one fund, managed by just one fund manager. By investing in these three managers together, the aim is to deliver more consistent performance, as when one underperforms we hope that the other managers have the potential to deliver outperformance. It’s certainly a compelling alternative to using a tracker fund as your core exposure to the UK equity market.

How to invest

The Barclays GlobalAccess UK Opportunities Fund is one of 13 Multi-Manager funds on the Barclays Funds List. Find out more information about the multi-manager funds as well as other funds that invest in companies investing in the UK. Find out more information on these funds.

Correct at the time of publishing.

To diversify your investment, you may like to consider our own Barclays Ready-Made Investments (RMI). The RMI are just one example of a range of diversified funds which allow you to select the level of risk you are most comfortable with. These multi-asset funds invest in passive funds across a range of asset classes and regions, offering a globally diversified one-stop solution for investors. Ready-Made Investments are not the only funds that we offer and they won’t be appropriate for everyone.

Past performance of the fund and its manager are not a reliable indicator of their future performance.

We don’t offer personal investment advice so if you’re unsure you should seek that independently.

Funds are designed for the long term so you should only consider them if you can stay invested for at least five years.

These are our current opinions but the future, as ever, is uncertain and outcomes may differ.

Read the Assessment of Value report [PDF, 683KB] for funds run by Barclays.