There is decent value in European markets, and this manager, as the name suggests, does run this fund as a "special situations" fund, unlike some other funds that tend to hug the index.  It means this fund has the opportunity to outperform, and the evidence is that the manager has employed this flexibility to good effect.  2007 was an exception where some underperformance against the index occurred, but this was not so extreme as you might expect from such a fund, so the downside risk was well managed in 2007.  

This is a medium risk fund, a core European holding with the potential to outperform sharply in bull markets.    

To achieve long-term capital growth by exploiting special situations principally in Europe. The Fund's investment policy is to attain the objective by investing principally in European equities, in investments considered by the manager to be undervalued.