Gary Potter (L) and Rob Burdett

“2007 ended with difficult conditions for equity and bond markets, so we were pleased to be holding the Blackrock Absolute Alpha fund and the Thames River High Income and Global Bond funds, all of which bucked trends to deliver positive returns. European equities lost money but IVI and Cazenove delivered positive returns. These performances were offset by deteriorating conditions for small cap, which hit the Old Mutual Select Smaller Companies fund, where we have allocated a small weighting. For 2008, we retain our mix of funds and expect the portfolio to offer defensive qualities with flexibility for growth.