New Star Financials fund avoiding US and property

Guy De Blonay, the £338.4m New Star Global Financials fund manager, says he will aim to avoid banks with exposure to the “deteriorating” credit cycle as well as those with exposure to the US. The fund is also shunning companies with European property exposure, particularly in the UK, Ireland and Spain. At the end of December, the majority of the overall portfolio's positions were in Cyprus, Greece and Turkey and the more established Swiss and UK markets. “Companies in the financial sector were trading on comparatively low relative valuations before the credit crisis started in the s...