Zurich Investments Global Growth aims provide investors with long-term capital growth by investing in securities listed on international stock exchanges. The Fund aims to outperform the MSCI World (ex-Australia) Accumulation Index in $A (net dividends reinvested) over periods of five or more years. The Fund invests in securities with high growth potential that are primarily listed on international stock exchanges. In addition, the Fund employs an active currency management strategy whereby up to 40% of the Fund’s exposure to international currency can be hedged back to Australian dollars.
The Fund fell with the market in the September quarter and was unable to outperform the index return
The key positive contributors to performance included Novo Nordisk and Pioneer Natural Resources.
Novo Nordisk – The Danish pharmaceutical company’s popular treatments for diabetes and obesity continued to boost total revenues and
in turn, elevated the stock. Pioneer Natural Resources – While the independent oil and gas company posted revenues that fell short of analysts’ expectations,
quarterly earnings surpassed, with oil production close to the top end of management’s estimated range.
The key detractors from performance included Adyen, Lonza Group and AIA Group
Adyen – Shares of this payment solutions provider declined on the news of the company’s disappointing earnings, due in part to a decline
in payment volume growth and an increase in expenses.
Lonza Group – Shares of Lonza, a Swiss contract manufacturer for the health care industry, declined on worries of slower demand and the departure of its CEO.
AIA Group – Shares of this Hong Kong-based insurer remain depressed. The company has been reporting improvement in the value of new business booked, yet its stock continues to underperform. The overall bearishness around emerging markets stocks appears to be weighing on AIA shares as well.
What is Zurich Investments Global Growth Zurich Investments Global Growth is an Managed Funds investment product that is benchmarked against Developed -World Index and sits inside the Foreign Equity - Large Growth Index. Think of a benchmark as a standard where investment performance can be measured. Typically, market indices like the ASX200 and market-segment stock indexes are used for this purpose. The Zurich Investments Global Growth has Assets Under Management of 231.40 M with a management fee of 0.98%, a performance fee of 0 and a buy/sell spread fee of 0.06%.
How has the investment product performed recently?
The recent investment performance of the investment product shows that the Zurich Investments Global Growth has returned 1.17% in the last month. The previous three years have returned 5.52% annualised and 11.41% each year since inception, which is when the Zurich Investments Global Growth first started.
How is risk measured in this investment product?
There are many ways that the risk of an investment product can be measured, and each measurement provides a different insight into the risk present. They can be used on their own or together to perform a risk assessment before investing, but when comparing investments, it is common to compare like for like risk measurements to determine which investment holds the most risk. Since Zurich Investments Global Growth first started, the Sharpe ratio is 0.82 with an annualised volatility of 11.41%. The maximum drawdown of the investment product in the last 12 months is -4.9% and -20.77% since inception. The maximum drawdown is defined as the high-to-low decline of an investment during a particular time period.
What is the relative performance of the investment product?
Relative performance is what an asset achieves over a period of time compared to similar investments or its peers. Relative return is a measure of the asset's performance compared to the return to the other investment. The Zurich Investments Global Growth has a 12-month excess return when compared to the Foreign Equity - Large Growth Index of -5.6% and 0.3% since inception.
Does the investment product produce Alpha over its Peers?
Alpha is an investing term used to measure an investment's outperformance relative to a market benchmark or peer investment. Alpha describes the excess return generated when compared to peer investment. Zurich Investments Global Growth has produced Alpha over the Foreign Equity - Large Growth Index of -0.2% in the last 12 months and -0.01% since inception.
What are similar investment products?
For a full list of investment products in the Foreign Equity - Large Growth Index category, you can click here for the Peer Investment Report.
What level of diversification will Zurich Investments Global Growth provide?
Zurich Investments Global Growth has a correlation coefficient of 0.97 and a beta of 0.82 when compared to the Foreign Equity - Large Growth Index. Correlation measures how similarly two investments move in relation to one another. This establishes a 'correlation coefficient', which has a value between -1.0 and +1.0. A 100% correlation between two investments means that the correlation coefficient is +1. Beta in investments measures how much the price moves relative to the broader market over a period of time. If the investment moves more than the broader market, it has a beta above 1.0. If it moves less than the broader market, then the beta is less than 1.0. Investments with a high beta tend to carry more risk but have the potential to deliver higher returns.
How do I compare the investment product with its peers?
For a full quantitative report on Zurich Investments Global Growth and its peer investments, you can click here for the Peer Investment Report.
How do I compare the Zurich Investments Global Growth with the Developed -World Index?
For a full quantitative report on Zurich Investments Global Growth compared to the Developed -World Index, you can click here.
Can I sort and compare the Zurich Investments Global Growth to do my own analysis?
To sort and compare the Zurich Investments Global Growth financial metrics, please refer to the table above.
Has the Zurich Investments Global Growth been independently verified by SMSF Mate?
This investment product is in the process of being independently verified by SMSF Mate. Once we have verified the investment product, you will be able to find more information here.
How can I invest in Zurich Investments Global Growth?
How do I get in contact with the Zurich Investments Global Growth?
Comments from SMSF Mates
SMSF Mate does not receive commissions or kickbacks from the Zurich Investments Global Growth. All data and commentary for this fund is provided free of charge for our readers general information.
Performance Commentary - August 31, 2023 The Fund produced a positive absolute return in August in Australian dollar terms but was unable to outperform the index return.
The key positive contributors to performance included Novo Nordisk and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Novo Nordisk – The Danish pharmaceutical company’s popular treatments for diabetes and obesity continued to boost total revenues and, in turn, elevated the stock.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries continues to benefit from a surge in defence-related orders, while its energy division continues to realise strong orders led by demand for gas turbines. The key detractors from performance included Adyen and Sea.
Adyen – Shares of this payment solutions provider declined on the news of the company’s disappointing earnings, due in part to a decline in payment volume growth and an increase in expenses.
Sea – The Singapore-based online gaming and entertainment firm posted a disappointing quarterly report. While sales growth has slowed, cost-cutting efforts have positively impacted profits.
The investment team fully exited The Walt Disney Co in August. The position was sold because the turnaround at Disney is expected to take longer than first anticipated. The company’s ability to improve the performance of its parks division, and to implement cost and pricing changes to key divisions, may not materially impact earnings over the intermediate term.
Performance Commentary - July 31, 2023 The Fund produced a positive absolute return in July but was unable to outperform the strong index return.
The key positive contributors to performance included Stellantis and Grupo Financiero Banorte.
Stellantis – The automaker’s stock rose during the month after management announced revenues for the first half of 2023 that beat consensus forecasts. The company reiterated its guidance for the remainder of the year.
Grupo Financiero Banorte – Shares of this Mexican bank rose in July after the company released its second-quarter financial results. While earnings did not quite match analysts’ expectations, its growth in net profits was robust, notably in the trading and insurance business segments.
The key detractors from performance included Hexagon and Verisign.
Hexagon – Shares of this maker of sensors and autonomous technology dropped after the release of mixed financial results that disappointed some investors.
VeriSign – Shares of the domain name registry company fell after an analyst downgrade that cited potentially slowing growth in domains.
Notable purchases in July included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Alibaba Group Holding while notable sales included FMC.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co continues to reiterate its long-term growth potential underpinned by demand for high-performance computing requirements. The investment team believes that artificial intelligence will be an incremental and meaningful growth driver for the company over time.
Alibaba Group Holding’s online retail sales in China are reaccelerating and its core China retail revenue, while still negative, is showing improvement from prior quarters. Further, the company’s planned spin-offs of several businesses and share repurchases have the potential to unlock value and return capital back to shareholders.
FMC is a crop chemical manufacturer with an emphasis on herbicides. The stock was fully exited after a series of disappointing earnings results, as the company has been executing unevenly and management has given too many excuses on missing earnings.
Performance Commentary - June 30, 2023 The Fund produced a solid absolute return in the June quarter but was unable to outperform the impressive index return.
The key individual contributors to performance included Marvell Technology, B3 and CoStar Group.
Marvell Technology – Shares of Marvell rose following the release of quarterly earnings and revenues that beat consensus market expectations.
B3 – Shares of this company boosted relative returns as B3 benefits from being the largest financial exchange operator in Brazil, where volatility continues to drive trading volumes.
CoStar Group – This leading provider of real estate data and services recently raised its guidance for 2023. MarketAxess Holdings was a key individual detractor in the quarter. Shares of the operator of bond trading platforms traded lower despite the company reporting solid volume statistics, including its best single day of credit volume and a solid rebound in new issuance in May. Notable purchases in the quarter included Becton Dickinson and Co and ASML Holding while notable sales included T-Mobile US and IQVIA Holdings.
Becton Dickinson and Co was purchased as the company’s organic revenue growth should materially improve over the next year. Demand for its products is relatively insulated from an economic downturn. There is also potential upside from new products such as the Alaris pump.
ASML Holding was added to the portfolio on rising evidence that interest and demand trends in generative artificial intelligence will fuel incremental growth in the server/data centre market, which will in turn be a strong driver of future silicon wafer consumption. The company recently upgraded its end-market growth assumptions.
T-Mobile US was exited as recent trends have been less favourable. The size of earnings beats and raises continue to shrink as the company has harvested most of the post-merger synergies with Sprint. Competitive pressures are also expected to rise, especially from telecommunication/cable competitors.
IQVIA Holdings was fully exited on continued concerns over many factors, including biotechnology funding leading to potential bad debts and the slowdown of research and development activity at end customers.
Performance Commentary - May 31, 2023 The Fund produced a marginally positive return in May but was unable to outperform the index return.
The key positive contributors to performance included Marvell Technology, Marvell Technology – Shares of Marvell rose following the release of quarterly earnings and revenues that beat consensus market expectations. In addition, a peer company’s strong earnings guidance driven by artificial intelligence-related demand for semiconductor chips further buoyed Marvell stock.
Advanced Micro Devices – The share price dipped early in May after the company reported quarterly financial results that matched analysts’ estimates but reflected a slump in sales of personal computers. However, after a competitor issued strong earnings guidance driven by artificial intelligence-related demand for semiconductor chips, the stock surged.
ICON – This provider of outsourced clinical trial and commercialisation services to the pharmaceuticals industry contributed to results in health care. The stock rose as earnings for the first quarter of 2023 exceeded analyst expectations and management reaffirmed prior revenue guidance for the full year of 2023.
Notable purchases in May included ASML Holdings and Mitsubishi Industries while notable sales included T-Mobile US and Catalent.
ASML Holding was added to the portfolio on rising evidence that interest and demand trends in generative artificial intelligence will fuel incremental growth in the server/data centre market, which will in turn be a strong driver of future silicon wafer consumption. The company recently upgraded its end-market growth assumptions.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries earnings and margins should inflect positively as the company benefits from new projects tied to sustainability goals, including market share gains in gas turbines and initiatives to prolong usage of nuclear reactor plants in Japan.
T-Mobile US was fully exited as recent trends have been less favourable. The size of earnings beats and raises continue to shrink as the company has harvested most of the post-merger synergies with Sprint. The investment team also expect competitive pressures to rise, especially from telecommunication/cable competitors.
Catalent was sold after yet another set of concerning news. The company recently announced a change in its CFO along with delaying its earnings report. These developments increase the risk that earnings expectations may once again be revised lower.
Performance Commentary - April 30, 2023 The Fund produced a solid return of 2.15% in April but was unable to keep pace with the strong index return.
The key positive contributors to performance included CoStar Group and AstraZeneca.
CoStar Group – The US-based provider of commercial real estate data reported quarterly earnings and revenues that exceeded analysts’ estimates, driving shares higher.
AstraZeneca – The pharmaceutical giant’s stock advanced as investors looked favourably on its development of a new antibody treatment capable of neutralising all known strains of COVID-19, which may become available before the end of 2023.
The key detractors from performance included MarketAxess Holdings, NXP Semiconductors and Catalent.
MarketAxess Holdings – Shares of the operator of bond trading platforms traded lower despite the company reporting monthly and quarterly credit volumes that improved versus the previous year.
NXP Semiconductors – Shares of the automotive chip designer and manufacturer moved lower amid relatively subdued revenue and earnings expectations for 2023. Flat automotive sales and an easing of chip shortages likely contributed to the anticipated slowdown in demand for NXP’s chips.
Catalent – The contract drugmaker’s stock declined after the company lowered sales expectations for 2023. Productivity challenges and higher costs at three of its plants drove the lowered estimates.
Performance Commentary - March 31, 2023 The Fund produced a strong return in the March quarter and was marginally behind the impressive index return. The key positive contributors to performance included MarketAxess Holdings, Advanced Micro Devices and Stellantis.
MarketAxess Holdings advanced on the strength of quarterly earnings and revenues that beat analysts’ estimates. MarketAxess reported solid growth in its latest monthly credit volumes as well.
Advanced Micro Devices rose alongside a broader rally in technology stocks. Reports of strong growth trends in AMD’s data centre and embedded businesses have also boosted the stock.
Stellantis recorded annual profit announced in February, with notable strength in sales of electric vehicles driving shares upward.
Notable purchases in the quarter included Humana and The Walt Disney Co while notable sales included ASML Holding and STERIS.
Humana is a leading provider of health insurance in the US. The stock was added to the Fund on evidence that the company has started to regain lost market share. Further, uncertainty around government reimbursement for Medicare Advantage has been clarified, thus removing an overhanging risk on the stock.
The Walt Disney Co. earnings are expected to inflect positively with the new leadership’s focus on driving profitability in the streaming business, where the company’s content is well positioned to win. The market has ascribed a notably low valuation to the streaming segment relative to peer companies.
ASML Holding was sold following a recent rally in the stock. The investment team believes that a combination of rising macroeconomic uncertainty and political tensions creates a level of risk around near-term demand and the company’s ability to export its technologies freely to China, a key market.
STERIS was fully exited after the company reported disappointing results due to new supply chain concerns with no clarity on when the issues might be resolved. Further, fundamentals are being negatively impacted by a reduction in sterilisation of bioprocessing components as vaccine production levels flatten.
Performance Commentary - February 28, 2023 The Fund rose by 0.95% in Australian dollar terms but was unable to outperform the index return. The key contributors included Stellantis, Catalent and Cheniere Energy. Stellantis – The Netherlands-based automaker announced a record annual profit in February, with notable strength in sales of electric vehicles driving shares upward. Catalent – The contract drugmaker’s stock advanced after the company announced an expansion of its manufacturing partnership with COVID-19 vaccine maker, Moderna. Cheniere Energy – The liquefied natural gas provider boosted relative returns after management reported strong revenue growth for the most recent quarter, beating analysts’ expectations. Notable purchases in February included American Water Works and Humana. American Water Works is the largest independent publicly traded water utility in the U.S.
Valuation has materially improved. We believe sustainable growth is benefiting from two secular trends, the aging of the U.S. water infrastructure as well as the ongoing consolidation of water utilities. Humana is a leading provider of health insurance in the U.S. We have initiated a position on evidence that the company has started to regain lost market share. Further, uncertainty around government reimbursement for Medicare Advantage have been clarified thus removing an overhanging risk on the stock. Notable sales included Diageo and Zebra Technologies. Diageo was exited after the company reported very disappointing results. Subsequent conversations with the CFO did not provide any comfort and led lower conviction on the investment. Zebra Technologies was sold on rising uncertainty around end-client demand over the near term. The investment team are seeing indications that retailers are delaying spending on inventory management equipment given rising risk around the economic cycle.
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