e-fundresearch: Which benchmark do you adhere to?
O’Gorman: MSCI All Countries World IT.
e-fundresearch: Are you also responsible for other funds at the moment?
O’Gorman: Yes. We have global technology products in the UK, Continental Europe, Asia and America.
e-fundresearch: What is the total volume that you manage in all your funds? We manage approximately
O’Gorman: $1.85B in specialist technology assets.
e-fundresearch: Regarding the performance: which performance did you achieve since the beginning of the year and in the years 2003-2008? Absolutely and relatively to the relevant benchmark?
O’Gorman: The fund has beaten its benchmark in every calendar year 2003-2008 except 2006 where it marginally underperformed.
e-fundresearch: How content are you with your own performance in the last years and this year?
O’Gorman: We are very happy with the relative performance of the fund as it seems to be better than average in both up and down markets.
e-fundresearch: How are you able to deliver added value for your investors with your performance?
O’Gorman: I focus not just on how good a companies technology is but also on whether they have a sustainable barrier to entry – at the end of the day this is about money not science and to make a sustainable profit you need to be able to protect your margins.
e-fundresearch: How long have you been a fund manager already?
O’Gorman: I have worked in the fund management industry for 13 years
e-fundresearch: What were your biggest successes and your biggest disappointments in your career as fund manager?
O’Gorman: Biggest disappointment – being too young and naïve (I was 26 when I joined Henderson in 2001) to spot just how bad the first tech bubble was.
Biggest success – learning from my mistakes and generating the consistent risk adjusted performance the fund has achieved from 2003-present.
e-fundresearch: What kind of capital market situation do we have at the moment? How do you act in this environment?
O’Gorman: I am worried that again we are printing money to avoid pain in the short term but that this may well have some unpleasant consequences in the longer term. However, I do believe that in the near term at least equity markets go higher as nearly everyone is bearish and governments continue to flood the world with cheap money. In addition, given the strong balance sheets of technology and a lot of strong product cycles I do believe that technology will probably outperform other equities in both rising or falling markets.
e-fundresearch: What are the special challenges in this environment?
O’Gorman: Avoiding the hype stocks that are currently having good news but whose long term business prospects do not support their valuation.
e-fundresearch: What objectives do you have till the end of the year and in the mid term for the upcoming 3 to 5 years?
O’Gorman: I will continue to remain fully invested in the near term. My main objective is identifying when the large monetary and fiscal stimulus will end and getting my clients to reduce their equity exposure when this happens.
e-fundresearch: What motivates you in your job?
O’Gorman: The fund management industry is full of a lot of clever people. It is very satisfying if you can outsmart them.
e-fundresearch: What else do you want to achieve or do you have any further aims as a fund manager?
O’Gorman: I would really like my fund to become the default choice for people looking at investing in the technology sector. I think that a key factor in achieving this will be telling people when they should sell as well as when they should buy. I think at some stage I would quite like to run a global growth fund as well.
e-fundresearch: What other profession would you have taken interest in, apart from becoming a fund manager?
O’Gorman: I would love to be a professional cricketer, but sadly you need to be both fit and co-ordinated to do that so I will just have to stick with fund management.
