Standard Life surges in December

December was kind to the players in the Rehab Great Investment Race, with almost all of the seven players delivering healthy returns for the charity.spot

The month was particularly positive for Mr Tony Hood of Standard Life, who notched up a gain of 7.6 per cent on his investment in UK fire protection company, Kidde. The takeover play paid off around the middle of the month when United Technologies agreed to acquire it for $2.8 billion (€2.14 billion).

Mr Hood locked in his gains and moved into January with all of his allocation in cash.

The performance left him on top for the month but was not sufficient to lift him from seventh place in the overall rankings.

Next best in December was Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM), where Mr Chris Reilly's holding in Greencore delivered a 6.7 per cent monthly return. The performance lifted BIAM from third to second position overall. Mr Reilly was still in the food company as the month turned but was looking towards drugs giant, Pfizer, as a new opportunity.

Irish Life Investment Managers (ILIM) took third place in December with a 4.8 per cent gain. The increase resulted in ILIM holding on to its fifth place in the race.

Fund manager, Mr Séamus Magner, also did well on Greencore, with positions in Telekom Austria, News Corp and Veolia (owners of Luas operator, Connex) also contributing positively.

Mr Magner was almost entirely in cash as he moved into January, aside from a small position in global engineering group, Tomkins. The firm exited the FTSE 100 early in December and Mr Magner considered it to be oversold.

Setanta held on to the top overall spot in December, boosted by a 3.9 per cent rise which left the firm in fourth position for the month. The growth came as fund manager, Mr James McSweeney, took a number of small positions in the insurance and technology sector. He also bought into Pfizer after it suffered over product safety fears and, like Mr Magner, had a small holding in Veolia.

Mr McSweeney entered January with 60 per cent of his assets in cash and the remainder in Italian energy company, ENI.

Hibernian was fifth in December, with a 1.6 per cent monthly gain leaving fund manager, Mr Roy Asher, in fourth overall position.

Mr Asher made no trades over the month. He did best on UK housebuilder, Westbury, which attracted some takeover speculation and remains a potential acquisition target.

Mr Asher's remaining picks - Hong Kong diversified trading company, Jardine Matheson, and Taiwan Semiconductors - were more or less flat, with gains effectively cancelled out by unhelpful currency movements.

Sixth place in December went to Montgomery Oppenheim, where Mr Michael Lernihan saw his allocation grow by 0.6 per cent. This pushed the firm down from second to third position, with an 18 per cent overall return.

Mr Lernihan's best holding over the month was in Montgomery Oppenheim's own Irish equity fund, which rose by 4.3 per cent. The gain was dragged down by a holding in UK financial services group, Man, which Mr Lernihan held into January. He also maintained positions in UTV and the Shares Japan exchange-traded fund.

Taking seventh place in December was AIB Investment Managers, where Mr Lance Graham had a quiet month.

He used cash generated by the sale of Compass in November to buy into copper miner, Antofagasta, hoping to gain on rising metal prices. Gains made on digital memory firm, Sandisk, were meanwhile limited by a weaker performance from market research group, VNU. Mr Graham was more or less fully invested as the new year began.