Graham Duce

“Despite equity markets continuing to make positive progress this month, we remain concerned that the full impact of the credit crisis has not yet passed on the underlying consumer especially in high indebted consumer countries such as the UK. We have reduced our allocation and beta within the UK by selling our existing holding and replacing it with BlackRock Absolute Alpha, a fund that has the flexibility and mandate to deliver positive returns in difficult market conditions. By reducing our market sensitivity and allocation within the UK it also allows us to take slightly more risk within the portfolio in areas we believe remain fundamentally attractive such as Asia.”