EUROPE - Fidelity Investments International has launched an America Earnings Growth Fund, targeting institutional investors who want exposure to US larger companies with strong earnings growth potential. The fund will be available initially to investors in the UK, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Norway.

Benchmarked against the S&P 500, the fund will be managed by Karen Firestone, who has managed money at Fidelity for 18 years, with the last five years specifically focused on earnings growth investment.

Fidelity’s earnings growth discipline invests in large cap companies that fulfil the following criteria:

- projected long-term earnings growth of more than 10% pa
- attractive valuation in relation to their earnings growth
- strong momentum over one year

Commenting on the new fund, Anna Roads, Fidelity’s head of research and product development, says: “It is a medium risk/return product that aims to deliver in excess of 2.5% pa over the longer term. It sits between our other US funds, Institutional Large Cap and US Select.”

As yet there is no projection for the size of the fund, but assets under management for this investment discipline in the US currently stands at nearly 8 billion dollars for institutional clients.