Henderson EuroTrust Fund Manager Commentary – January 2022
3 minute read
There has been a very strong factor rotation to start the year with a significant rally in value at the expense of growth. In January, with MSCI Europe returning -3.17%, MSCI Europe Value gained 2.74% whilst MSCI Europe Growth lost 8.93%. This 11.66% underperformance of growth proved to be a headwind to our performance, and we underperformed during the month.1 This was obviously disappointing, but given our growth-biased strategy, we are unsurprised by our performance in this context. We are certainly less exposed to growth than we were 12-18 months ago, and this has limited the damage to performance so far this year.
In the context of this factor rotation, our stock-level attribution is fairly predictable. Our growthiest names hurt us the most, with Allfunds, Cellnex and Delivery Hero our biggest detractors. At the same time, our less expensive companies provided some protection; Total, Munich Re and Arkema were amongst our strongest performers. It is worth nothing that our decision to buy Total and Arkema towards the end of 2021 provided some protection in the rout in growth that we have seen so far this year. We have not really traded much so far this year but are starting to focus on some of our Growth/Quality names that have derated heavily; it is likely that we will look for opportunities to increase our exposure to this part of the portfolio (and potentially via new positions too) if the terrible environment for Growth/Quality continues.
We 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.
1Source: Bloomberg, as at 31/01/2022
| Discrete year performance % change (updated quarterly) | Share Price | Nav |
| 31/12/2020 to 31/12/2021 | 0.5 | 8.5 |
| 31/12/2019 to 31/12/2020 | 28.6 | 21.1 |
| 31/12/2018 to 31/12/2019 | 23.9 | 25.2 |
| 29/12/2017 to 31/12/2018 | -16.5 | -8.6 |
| 30/06/2016 to 29/12/2017 | 30.2 | 17.7 |
| All performance, cumulative growth and annual growth data is sourced from Morningstar | ||
Growth investing – Growth investors search for companies they believe have strong growth potential. Their earnings are expected to grow at an above-average rate compared to the rest of the market, and therefore there is an expectation that their share prices will increase in value.
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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