Fidelity European Values (FEV) aims to achieve long-term capital growth through investing primarily in continental European equities. The manager follows a consistent bottom-up approach, seeking to identify companies able to grow dividends over a three- to five-year horizon. FEV’s NAV total return performance has been ahead of its FTSE World Europe ex-UK benchmark over three, five and 10 years, although investments in out-of-favour areas of the market have given the portfolio a slightly contrarian large-cap bias relative to peers, which has been unhelpful during recent small-cap outperformance. The portfolio’s historically high relative dividend yield and superior growth prospects are seen by the manager as a positive indicator for future performance.
