Whether it was selling baby wipes or boosting asset managers’ returns, Johnson & Johnson, the US healthcare group, seemed to prove its worth last year. Global equity fund managers, including Goldman Sachs Asset Management, MFS Investments, PI Investment Management and Aberdeen Asset Management, held overweight positions in the US healthcare group throughout 2008, following the example of billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

They were rewarded - at least in relative terms - for their confidence. The 123-year-old company generated a total return in dollar terms of minus 7.8%, outperforming the MSCI World equity index by 32.5 percentage points.