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Money Manager Interview Excerpt
JOHN PARK - LIBERTY WANGER ASSET MANAGEMENT


Full article published: 05/07/2001


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TWST: Tell us about the Liberty Acorn Twenty Fund.
Mr. Park: The Fund itself is a concentrated fund. As the name implies, it holds about 20 securities. We've actually set a range of 20-25 stocks and are committed to staying under 25 names. Typically, 70% of the Fund's assets are in the top 15 stocks and 50% of the Fund's assets are in the top 10. What we've discovered over the years is that we are a firm that's about picking stocks, particularly in the small to mid-cap sectors. These are areas of the market that we believe are less efficiently researched, so there are more mispriced securities. By using our research and stock-picking capabilities, we think that we can capture a lot of added value in a focused fund. Generally focused funds, over very long periods of time, will either magnify the good or bad results of the investment manager. It's almost as if there is no place to hide. So if an investment manager has investment talent, usually their focused fund is a good product. If not, it can be a disaster. Acorn Fund has been around since 1970 and we have a demonstrated history of picking good stocks. When the Acorn Twenty Fund began in November 1998, we believed that it would be a very good product for shareholders because it would take the same Acorn Fund research team and compile their best ideas in the mid-cap area. We think the Fund is appropriate for an individual who really seeks added value from a money management company in terms of its stock-picking abilities. If one were a shareholder of a large index fund, say an S&P 500 Index fund, one might want to supplement that with exposure to small and mid-cap stocks by buying an Acorn Fund. That strategy makes sense because most active money managers can't beat a large cap index like the S&P 500 since investors can't find a lot of mispriced securities in the large cap universe. However, the majority of small and mid-cap equity managers do beat the passive benchmarks, because again, these stocks are less efficiently researched. Buying a concentrated fund like the Acorn Twenty Fund really takes advantage of the research team's ability to pick stocks in this universe of mispriced securities.

 

Tickers included in this excerpt: AXP, BAX, BGEN, BSX, GDT, HRB, JNJ, JNY, MDT, MLHR, TEK

 

For more information call (212) 952 7433. The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does not make stock recommendations.