Artemis Investment Management, an independent fund manager with £10.9 billion (about $17 billion) under management at 31 August, is to launch its fourteenth unit trust on 17 October.

The Artemis European Opportunities Fund intends to back its managers Mark Page and Laurent Millet in their stock-picking expertise in this sector.

From a portfolio of around 60 stocks, the aim is long-term capital growth from investment in European equities, excluding the UK.

The benchmark will be the FTSE European ex-UK Index. Both sectoral and geographic exposure will be playing a secondary role.

“The case against European equities is well rehearsed. Yet the case for investing is also clear. With some of the most consistent creators of shareholder value trading at ‘value’ type multiples, there is a great deal of bad news already in the price. The average European company is trading at a significant discount to historic and relative values,“ argues Page.