Fund Manager August 2021 Commentary – Henderson EuroTrust
In August, the Trust produced a flattish performance versus the index.
Our best performing positions included Novo Nordisk, RWE and Bawag. Novo Nordisk is benefitting from very strong growth in its core therapeutic areas, with margin strength driven by their leading competitive position. Innovation over recent years has been focused on obesity and the company have recently launched a pill for the US obesity market; demand has far outstripped supply for this product and this has led investors to start pricing in some significant growth in this franchise. RWE had had a weak start to 2021, with investors moving away from ESG-related investments and into more cyclical businesses. However, in recent weeks, RWE has announced strong results and investor appetite seems to be returning once again to the broad sector. Bawag has been a very strong performing banks position, especially over the past 12 months. There is a large capital return coming up in October and the company will also host a capital markets day where they will lay out their medium-term vision. Anticipation of these two events has supported the share price.
Our worst performing positions continue to be concentrated in our gaming exposures. As with last month, regulatory pressure in China is concerning investors and in addition, these businesses are seeing slower growth this year after a very strong 2020 helped by Covid-19. Our positions in Embracer, Stillfront and Prosus all detracted from performance during the month.
Recent results have continued to be largely favourable and have backed up our conviction in a number of our holdings. We have had another month of limited trading activity although we did decide to sell our position in Embracer and reduce our position in Prosus further. Our gaming exposure is now limited to small positions in both Prosus and Stillfront.
We are confident in our positioning and will continue to retain balance in our exposures by considering two types of business for investment; those where we see high and sustainable returns that are undervalued by the market and those companies where we can see a material improvement in medium term business prospects.
Cyclical Expand
Companies that sell discretionary consumer items, such as cars, or industries highly sensitive to changes in the economy, such as miners. The prices of equities and bonds issued by cyclical companies tend to be strongly affected by ups and downs in the overall economy, when compared to non-cyclical companies.
ESG ExpandEnvironmental, social and governance are three key criteria used to evaluate a company’s ethical impact and sustainable practices.
References made to individual securities should not constitute or form part of any offer or solicitation to issue, sell, subscribe, or purchase the security. Janus Henderson Investors, one of its affiliated advisors, or its employees, may have a position mentioned in the securities mentioned in the report.
These are the views of the author at the time of publication and may differ from the views of other individuals/teams at Janus Henderson Investors. References made to individual securities do not constitute a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security, investment strategy or market sector, and should not be assumed to be profitable. Janus Henderson Investors, its affiliated advisor, or its employees, may have a position in the securities mentioned.
Past performance does not predict future returns. The value of an investment and the income from it can fall as well as rise and you may not get back the amount originally invested.
The information in this article does not qualify as an investment recommendation.
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- The Company may have a particularly concentrated portfolio (low number of holdings) relative to its investment universe - an adverse event impacting only a small number of holdings can create significant volatility or losses for the Company.
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- Active management techniques that have worked well in normal market conditions could prove ineffective or negative for performance at other times.
- The Company could lose money if a counterparty with which it trades becomes unwilling or unable to meet its obligations to the Company.
- Shares can lose value rapidly, and typically involve higher risks than bonds or money market instruments. The value of your investment may fall as a result.
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- The Company may use gearing (borrowing to invest) as part of its investment strategy. If the Company utilises its ability to gear, the profits and losses incurred by the Company can be greater than those of a Company that does not use gearing.
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