|
|
Sarasin IE Global Equity Opportunities (GBP) - News
|
|
|
Fund Name Changed
|
|
Tuesday, 22 November 2016
|
Official Announcement
|
The Sarasin IE EquiSar - Global Thematic (GBP) will change it's name to Sarasin IE Global Equity Opportunities (GBP), effective from 22 November 2016
|
| |
|
Sarasin EquiSar GBP Gbl Thematic comment - Dec 15
|
|
Thursday, 10 March 2016
|
Fund Manager Comment
|
Oil and commodity markets, along with Chinese deflationary fears, continued to dominate global equity markets in the fourth quarter. Volatility in Chinese equities added to a another poor quarter for emerging markets, largely eclipsing the US Federal Reserve's December rate rise - the first in almost 7 years.
The quarter saw particularly strong gains in our Disruption & Innovation holdings, including online retailer Amazon, developer and manufacturer Keyence, Google's holding company Alphabet, and biotech firm Amgen. By November, price gains were so marked that we started to take profits in several of the US software names, bringing the theme weighting back below 25%. It was a more challenging period for some of our Corporate Restructuring names, including Hartford Financial Services and several of our bank holdings including Barclays, Citi and ING. After recent falls we continue to expect our bank holdings to rally as their potential dividend growth is recognised and capital ratios continue to improve.
Despite holding only 4.5% in energy linked stocks, our BP restructuring position and our Strong get Stronger position in Anadarko (US oil and shale production), both performed poorly as oil hit new lows in December. Meanwhile, emerging market exposure, while still underweight, rose modestly by quarter end.
Further declines in oil and emerging markets will drive greater volatility in global equities in the short term, although we have likely seen the worst of the correction. Buying opportunities are already appearing in the strongest of our emerging world franchises, in our bank restructuring opportunities, and in areas where activity is unaffected by the recent turmoil and where secure supply is key (such as defence, data centres and dialysis).
|
| |
|
Sarasin EquiSar GBP Gbl Thematic comment - Sep 14
|
|
Monday, 20 October 2014
|
Fund Manager Comment
|
The US remained an economic bright spot throughout much of the third quarter, though the Federal Reserve is still expected to start hiking interest rates only around mid-2015, and Chair Janet Yellen continues her labour market focus. In Europe, meanwhile, despite a disappointing take up of TLTROs (targeted longer-term refinancing operations), Mario Draghi claimed that the European Central Bank remained ready to deploy more unconventional monetary policy in the face of weak data and entrenched deflation. Elsewhere, politics held centre stage through the Scottish independence referendum's 'No' vote in the UK, and anti-China protests in Hong Kong.
Our Corporate Restructuring theme turned around this quarter and was comfortably our best performing theme. Some of this strength came from a recovery in oversold financials (Citigroup and Hartford), but Nokia also made an excellent contribution to the theme's performance. Strong get Stronger was also much improved, with JP Morgan and Automatic Data Processing the frontrunners.
Amgen (biopharmaceuticals) in Disruption & Innovation was our top contributor, as analysts begin to price in pipeline success. Kansas City Southern was next in line, increasing guidance. The company's rail volumes, operating leverage and exposure to Mexico remain highly attractive.
The fund's performance was heavily impacted by poor performance from one of our largest positions, BorgWarner (automotive components), which was down 15% over the quarter. We still see real thematic strength in the company though, with new products providing incremental growth ahead, and core volumes may be better than consensus. Ocado also disappointed, due to thinning margins in the fiercely competitive UK grocery market.
During the period, we sold our holding in Tokio Marine (due to the subdued expectations for demand) and low expectations on capital returns, and began a position in Fuji Media, an integrated Japanese television broadcaster. We also reduced our position in Canadian Pacific Railways following an excellent run; its thematic story (Corporate Restructuring) is playing out, and its current price is factoring high expectations.
Global economic activity remains modest and there are few inflationary pressures in major economies, though concerns over the impact of future US rate rises in global equity markets are growing. However, markets should become increasingly selective as the recovery broadens and liquidity driven asset flows subside, and we perceive this to be a fertile environment for our thematic approach.
|
| |
|
|
