Southampton leads the world in producing high-performing fund managers

The University of Southampton has topped a list of the world’s best universities for producing high-performing fund managers.

According to a study by Citywire, Southampton ties with the Parisian business school École des Hautes Etudes Commerciales as best in the world for graduating the highest proportion of fund managers who consistently deliver high performance for their investors. 

Of the fund manages identified by Citywire as being educated at Southampton, 64 per cent rated as good or better. Southampton alumni include Jamie Seaton (Economics and Business Economics, 1996), who runs the GVQ Opportunities Fund and was the top-performing manager in the Citywire research. Since February 2012, he produced a 109 per cent return for fundholders, against a 66.3 per cent average return for managers investing in the UK “all companies” sector. He read economics and business economics.

Another is Sebastian Lyon (Politics and International Relations, 1989), who founded Troy Asset Management and runs its successful Trojan fund. He also advises the £800 million Personal Assets Trust investment trust.

Bath University is placed third in the Citywire survey with 53 per cent followed by the University of Chicago with 50 per cent and Warwick with 46 percent. 

While Oxford and Cambridge each produced more star stockpickers by number, they also produced more also-rans and underperformers, bringing down their overall scores. Oxford trailed in 12th place, with only 33 per cent, and Cambridge came 14th, with 31 per cent.

To gain a Citywire rating, fund managers must beat their benchmarks over a three-year period over 75 per cent of their careers. The study looked only at universities where ten or more eligible fund managers attended. It examined more than 1,800 fund managers running funds available to purchase in the UK.

Lawrence Lever, chairman of Citywire, said: “If your aim is to become a fund manager, then Oxford and Cambridge still generate the most number of them, but if you are an asset management group hiring fund managers, then your percentage chances of finding really good ones are improved by looking at applicants from places like Southampton, Bath and Warwick.”