Bericht des Fondsmanagements (Stand: 31.08.2024)
The sub-fund slightly underperformed the MSCI Europe TR index in August but remained well above this reference index year-to-date as European equity markets closed the month at their all-time highs after experiencing considerable volatility in the first part of the month (notably in technical aspects, with the questioning of the value of the carry trade, an operation aimed at investing in high-yielding assets, partly in US, thanks to a JPY funding). In that context, defensive companies outperformed and erased almost all their underperformance that had been accumulated vs. cyclical ones since October last year. Some reassuring comments from Japan about the pace of monetary policy normalisation supported the rebound in global equities in the second part of the month while European companies reported decent earnings for the first half of the year. The top performer in portfolio over the month was Neste: the Finish leader in renewable diesel recovered after several month of underperformance related to concerns about the long-term capacity in the industry and a less supportive regulation. A change in the top management mid-October may be a catalyst on top of the recent announcement of a new regulation in Sweden. The sub-fund benefitted from its high exposure to healthcare and industrials. Indeed, pharmaceutical groups performed well (Astrazeneca, Merck Kgaa and Novartis were the top performers in that category) and investments in Bureau Veritas and Assa Abloy continued to outperform, backed by and expected acceleration in growth over the coming quarters. Among the most defensive sectors, selected names in telecom, real estate and utilities contributed to the positive return thanks to the fund positioning in Deutsche Telekom (up 6%), Vonovia (up 5%, recently entered in the portfolio) and Iberdrola (up 5%). On the negative side, some value segments such as financials and auto weighed on the absolute and relative performance. Societe Generale (impacted by a poor communication and a warning on the net interest income in its French business) and Renault (despite the release of good results and the confirmation of its guidance for 2024) were the two main detractors over the month. The top and worst relative contributors vs. MSCI Europe in the month were: (+) Deutsche Telekom, Iberdrola, Novartis and Shell / HSBC (not invested and down more than 4%) (-) Societe Generale, Renault, Prudential, ASML and Ferrari (not invested and up 18%)