Fidelity, the US fund manager, has taken top prize in the Thomson Extel survey for the fourth year.

Almost 300 of Europe's largest quoted companies took part in the survey, voting Fidelity as the best European fund manager. Capital International, another US manager, held onto second position. Schroders, the UK-listed investment house, moved up into third place from fifth last year, pushing Merrill Lynch Investment Managers out of the top three.