"You can look at all the figures you like," says Derek Stuart in Investment Adviser. "But even a company with fantastic margins and great cash flow can be destroyed very quickly by a poor management team." That's why a board's pedigree is of the utmost importance, he says.
It's a philosophy that has served him and the £1.1bn Artemis UK Special Situations Fund he has run since 2000 well. The fund has outperformed the UK All Companies index by 120% over eight years. Back then, when everyone was buying tech stocks, Stuart shunned them in favour of unloved housebuilders. "He has displayed a knack of being ahead of the market through investing in out-of-favour areas," independent financial adviser Gavin Haynes of Whitechurch Securities tells Thisismoney.co.uk.
Given his historic performance, it would take a brave person to doubt him. "Stuart is undoubtedly one of the UK's finest stockpickers and has a superb record," says Helen Richardson of IFA Pantheon in the Daily Mail.
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Artemis UK Special Situations Fund top ten holdings
| Name of holding | % of assets |
| Royal Dutch Shell B'Ord | 4.10% |
| GlaxoSmithKline | 3.90% |
| BP | 3.90% |
| Vodafone Group | 3.20% |
| BT Group | 3.10% |
| Cadbury Schweppes | 3.0% |
| BG Group | 3.0% |
| Unilever | 2.90% |
| British Energy Group | 2.80% |
| Cable & Wireless | 2.70% |
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