Regions are dead. It’s all going to be about thematics. OK, maybe that’s a little extreme, but there is a lot of interest in thematic funds. They allow asset managers to develop tightly focused investment theses, based on existing pools of expertise. Distribution departments can also find an angle into allocations, pitching strategies as a compliment rather than a competitor to incumbent mainstays.

Amplify took a look at the data to identify top thematic managers. We have also included a chart showing overall outperformance trends in each of their sectors.

Pharmaceuticals

We begin with one of the best thematic managers in one of the top-performing thematic sectors: Justin Segalini from Fidelity Investments. Segalini (pictured above) manages the Fidelity Select Health Care Services Portfolio fund in the Equity – Pharmaceuticals & Health Care sector. He ranks third of 128 qualifying managers in the sector with a three-year return of 75.3%, which has earned him a Citywire AAA rating for two consecutive months.

The fund invests heavily in UnitedHealth Group (24.1%), alongside Humana (8.2%) and Cigna (7.9%) The sector has been performing well and has seen an increase in managers with positive manager ratios over 36 months, increasing from 15.9% in June to 25.2% currently. Segalini is one of only two managers in the sector rated AAA.

Ecology

Heading over to another of the better-performing thematic sectors, we have Jeremy Deems and Garvin Jabusch, co-managers of the Shelton Green Alpha fund. The fund is in Citywire’s Equity – Ecology sector and invests in companies such as JinkoSolar (6.7%), Tesla (5.3%), and Switch (5.2%).

Deems co-founded Green Alpha Advisors in 2007, alongside Jabusch, and has acted as a portfolio manager and chief financial officer of the company since. He began at Forward Management (now Salient) in 1998. Jabusch has been the chief investment officer at Green Alpha since 2007.

Both managers are AAA-rated and have been for 22 of the past 24 months. They rank second of 83 qualifying managers in the Ecology sector, with a three-year return of 78.7%, well above the average of 15.5% in this same time period.

Biotechnology

Finally, we round off our thematics journey with Polar Capital’s David Pinniger. Pinniger is the manager of the Polar Capital Biotechnology fund and is the lone AAA-rated manager in the Equity – Biotechnology sector and has received the rating for four consecutive months.

The fund has a three-year return of 59.4%, making it and Pinniger the best in the sector. The fund has achieved this by investing in companies such as Argenx (6.6%), Vertex Pharmaceuticals (5.6%) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (5.2%).

Pinniger began his career at Morgan Stanley as an equity research analyst and continued this role at his next firm, Abingworth Management. In 2008, Pinniger became a fund manager at SV Life Sciences before joining Polar Capital in the same role in 2013, where he helped launched the Biotechnology fund.