FUND MANAGER Q&A: ANTHONY CONROY, Zurich Life, www.zurichlife.ie

Anthony Conroy is associate director of global equities at Zurich Life and manages the Eurozone Equity Fund. He has managed European portfolios for 10 years.

What is your investment approach?

The Eurozone Equity Fund is actively managed and we take a top-down approach, selecting countries first, then sectors and finally individual stocks. This process is dictated by our view on the European economic cycle, monetary policies and valuations.

We think the European economy is improving and we’re in the recovery phase. We have a preference for core European countries such as Germany, but we’re still quite concerned about peripheral countries such as Greece, Portugal and Spain, and the fund is also underweight in Ireland.

We are overweight in cyclical stocks such as industrials, some consumer cyclicals, media and technology.

How has your fund performed?

We measure the European Equity Fund’s performance against the FTSE All-World Eurobloc index. The fund has outperformed this benchmark on a one-, three- and five-year basis.

Over the last five years, the fund has delivered an annualised return of 7.2 per cent, compared to a return of 3.3 per cent by the benchmark index. The fund has also outperformed in the year to date. At the end of March, it had delivered a return of 1.7 per cent, compared to the index performance of 0.9 per cent.

What is your outlook?

Our outlook is still positive because the European economy as a whole is improving, interest rates are low and valuations are reasonable. European markets have had a significant rally and we think they have the ability to rally further, but this is going to depend on the delivery of corporate earnings by companies.

We think these earnings will come through thanks to the weak euro and the improving economy, and we believe we are best served by being in the cyclical parts of the market.

• In conversation with Caroline Madden