As with the majority of managed funds, F&C swayed heavily towards global equities in 2005, with 58.9 per cent of the total fund invested in this asset class at the end of the year.

Within this category it favoured European markets, and also allocated almost 10 per cent of the fund to UK equities, which rose 24.7 per cent in euro terms.

According to investment consultants Rubicon, the UK market fared well due to rising oil and commodity prices.

Graham Brooks, marketing and client services director with F&C outlines the factors which led to last year's robust growth of 22.3 per cent.

"This has been due to strong overseas equity and property performance. Asset allocation was positive for F&C Ireland in 2005 as we maintained an overweight position in equities over bonds.

"Good stock selection remains at the heart of the improved international equity performance. Japanese equities were the star performers as optimism continues to build concerning future reform and the re-emergence of inflation."

F&C's investment management philosophy is a mix of top-down and bottom-up.

"Our investment style is active and pragmatic, and not bound by 'value' or 'growth'. We focus our research on establishing long-term fair values.

"Our differentiation lies in proprietary in-house company analysis that also provides insights into the drivers of short-term market behaviour, enabling us to exploit investment opportunities,"says Mr Brooks.