FORMER Hartley analyst David Franklyn is not one to blow his own trumpet or seek fanfare. Even when communicating to investors in his Entrust Investment Fund, he’s remarkably low-key when it comes to claiming credit for almost 41 per cent returns for the year to June 30. That is quite an achievement, even in the current market. Perhaps, though, it is wise to be cautious given the fickle nature of investment markets. The performance represents Mr Franklyn’s first full year of operations with Entrust – a group set up by former Hartley’s colleague Graeme Yukich. Mr Franklyn is managing director of Entrust Funds Management Ltd, where he ended up after a short stint on the management team of Alinta Ltd just as it was becoming Western Australia’s own version of a Pac Man, acquiring all and sundry across the nation. The Entrust fund has an emerging companies bias and is benchmarked against the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Index. For the record, Mr Franklyn reported to investors that more than 28 per cent of the fund was held in defensive yield stocks aiming to lock in dividend/distribution income when it is difficult to identify value in the market. Just a tad over 10 per cent was in the small companies component of the trust’s asset allocation, including stocks like Imdex Ltd, Mission Biofuels Ltd and aiLimited. About 12 per cent is cash, around 20 per cent in special situation and a little more than 30 per cent in value growth where Mr Franklyn said: “Finding stand out value opportunities has proven difficult for much of the year, although the market correction in May and June 2006 provided a few opportunities and resulted in the sector allocation ending at its highest level for the year.”