Schroders has been named Morningstar's Australian Fund Manager of the Year for 2008.
The asset manager beat finalists Colonial First State and Vanguard Investments to secure the overall prize and took out two of eight categories including Multisector and Domestic Equities.
Schroders' disciplined investment process and eye on valuation has helped it navigate a difficult year for investors, Morningstar head of adviser and research Anthony Serhan said.
"While strategic and target asset allocations are key to the performance of Schroders' multi-sector funds, understanding, managing, and allocating risks are also important factors the shop considers," he said.
Schroders Balanced Fund dropped 18.3 per cent in 2008, beating the average 26 per cent decline among funds in the Morningstar Multisector Growth category.
"We've added 7.5 per cent to returns through tactical asset allocation over the last year. A lot of it has been through being out of property trusts, equities and commodities and into cash and bonds," Schroders head of fixed income and multi-asset Simon Doyle told InvestorDaily in January.
Schroders Australian Equity Fund, led by Martin Conlon, won the Domestic Equities Manager of the Year award after it avoided momentum-driven growth stocks whose price collapsed in 2008, Serhan said.
Platinum Asset Management won the International Equities Manager of the Year award while UBS International Equities took out Most Improved Manager of the Year.
"UBS' formerly dysfunctional global shares strategy made up a lot of lost ground in 2008 under the new leadership of Nick Melhuish," Serhan said.
