Fidelity European Trust (formerly Fidelity European Values) aims to achieve long term capital growth from a portfolio primarily made up of shares in continental European companies. The portfolio manager is not restricted by the size of company, country or sector allocation which is determined by the location of attractive investment opportunities rather than the outlook for each market.
The portfolio manager seeks companies based on their prospects for producing dividends and dividend growth as this indicates steady structural growth. He searches for companies focusing on four key areas which are positive fundamentals, which includes a good track record, structural growth cycle on cycle and a good return on capital employed; the ability to generate cash, with a robust underlying level of cash generation which relates to profitability; dislikes companies that borrow large sums of money and he looks for opportunities with the flexibility to invest: finally he prefers stocks that are attractively valued as he is not prepared to pay any price for a good opportunity.
FEV : Fidelity European Trust