Investment Manager’s Commentary

Despite so much talk recently about the growing concentration of stock markets, particularly in the US, the broadening out of returns is a defining feature of markets so far this year. The ongoing resilience of the economy has supported corporate profits and investor sentiment, a dynamic that favours several more cyclical or interest-rate sensitive sectors – e.g. energy, materials and banks in March, and semiconductors, retailers, and industrials in the quarter. The Fund has partially benefitted from these trends, with strong returns from payments companies, for instance. Its investments in consumer internet companies have also captured some of the excitement about the potential for generative AI. But the strategy has lagged in recent months because of its heavy emphasis on structural growth from less economically sensitive companies that have clear and durable competitive advantages.

The top five contributors to the Fund’s returns in the quarter were Meta Platforms (‘Meta’), Fiserv, Mastercard, Microsoft and American Express. The bottom five contributors were Roche, Adobe, Heineken, Take-Two Interactive Software and L’Oréal. The individual performances of Meta, Roche and Heineken were reviewed in last month’s factsheet (see here).

There were no new investments or exits in the quarter. Trading activity in existing holdings reflected our attention paid to valuations with additions to areas where we continue to see significant valuation anomalies – e.g. Alphabet, Diageo and LSEG – and reductions where valuations are richer – e.g. American Express and Experian. Through this process the valuation of the Fund (on a cash-flow yield basis) remains broadly equivalent to that of the wider market, despite the Fund’s far better financial productivity and prospects for consistent growth. This gives us confidence that the inefficiency that underpins the strategy – that which misprices higher quality companies – is alive and well.

Past performance is not a guide to the future. The value of the shares and the income from them can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount originally invested. Source: Yealand Fund Services Limited, NAV to NAV in sterling with net income reinvested. Returns are shown net of annual management charge, other expenses and net income reinvested. Returns do not include the effect of initial charges.

Investment Objective and Policy

The Company’s investment objective is to seek to achieve long term (at least 5 years) capital growth with some potential for income.

To achieve the investment objective, the Company’s investment policy is to invest principally (at least 80%) in a portfolio of global equities, and may also invest in other transferable securities, bonds (both corporate and government debt securities), collective investment schemes (“CIS”), warrants, money market instruments, cash, near cash and deposits. The Company may borrow and may enter into underwriting arrangements. It is the ACD’s intention that derivatives and forward currency transactions will only be used for the purposes of efficient portfolio management, including hedging, as defined by the Regulations.

The Company is actively managed and has, with the exception of the above noted minimum, no limit to which it can be invested in each sector or asset type, nor is there any particular geographic focus. The Portfolio Manager has full flexibility to adjust the proportion of the property of the Company depending on their view of market conditions and the assets which it believes are most likely to achieve the Company’s investment objective. From time to time the liquidity of the Company may be increased substantially if judged to be in the interests of investors.

The Company may invest in CIS which have different investment strategies or restrictions than the Company, including the ability to invest in derivatives for investment purposes and to gain exposure to assets which are not expressly listed above. Investment in CIS will usually be limited to those which invest primarily in the assets listed above and without exception, CIS will only be held in so far as the rules permit the Company to gain exposure to the assets held by those CIS.

A Glossary of Definitions which provides definitions to some of the technical language used on this website is available from www.yealand.com/policies.

Comparator Benchmark

To gauge the relative performance of the Fund, Shareholders may compare the Fund’s performance against the Investment Association’s Global Sector. This is not a performance target nor constrains the way in which the Fund is managed. For further information on the Sector and its intended use, please refer to the Fund’s Prospectus.