The fund has been in place for a number of years through Aberdeen Asset Managers. The current strategy was repositioned towards the end of 2015 and is now starting to display outperformance. It is a highly concentrated portfolio focusing on quality companies. The fund does have exposure to large companies like Heineken, Nestle and Unilever and this was a concern for us.
The counter argument is all those companies offer growth potential and although they won’t necessarily light the world up, they provide an element of protection within the portfolio. The aim is to outperform the index by about 2/3% compounded each year. To do that they need to be able to capture lower downside risk as well as participating in the upside capture.
Nestle, Unilever have to pass their hurdle rate in terms of yield and growth and although they are defensive, they definitely have a part to play. In terms of stock attribution over twelve months it is the likes of Edenred, ASML, Hannover Ruek who have been some of the biggest contributors to the fund performance…..read more