Fund of the week: Outperforming the Sage of Omaha

A little-known fund that styles itself after veteran US investor Warren Buffett has beaten the latter by almost 40% over the past year. The ConBrio Sanford DeLand UK Buffettology fund gained 27.2% in 2015, relative to Berkshire Hathaway's 12.7% loss, writes James Phillipps on CityWire. The fund is still relatively small, with assets of £30.7m, but "its profile is rising fast after it capped consistent outperformance since its launch in 2011 with sector-leading returns in 2015".Over a four-year period, it is ranked fourth in its peer group, having returned 98.4%.

The fund's manager, Citywire A-rated Keith Ashworth-Lord, "is not one to worry about short-term noise the focus is very much on measuring individual companies' economic value and projecting this into the future", says Phillipps. He "places great emphasis on finding companies with transparent financials, growing earnings, attractive free-cash-flow conversion and high barriers to entry".

Like Buffett, Ashworth-Lord is a believer in the buy-and-hold approach: "Once I've got a holding in something, I will hold it forever if necessary." He recently invested in out-of-favour British manufacturing company Rotork and counts biotech firm Bioventix and Domino's Pizza as key holdings.

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The fund has only been around since March 2011, so it remains to be seen whether this success will be sustained. However, it could be an interesting alternative to better-known funds with a similar strategy, such as Finsbury Growth and Income Trust and Fundsmith Equity. The "I" share class, available through most major fund platforms, has an annual management charge of 1% and an ongoing charge figure (OCF) of 1.63%.

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