Half Year Report
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HALF YEAR REPORT THE ART OF COMMON SENSE NEW OPPORTUNITIES ON THE HORIZON JULY 2015 | www.skagenfunds.com LEADER Patience and NEW EQUITY lessons learned FUND In an increasingly globalised world, there is more is true, however, and this can give rise to a period I would like to highlight the pressure than ever on fund managers to react to of reflection and soul searching, also in SKAGEN. successful launch of our new events and quickly turn around their investment Our recently appointed Investment Director, global equity fund in the portfolios. Ole Søeberg, has spent some time this spring quarter. SKAGEN Focus is a The alternatives seem to be either to chase looking at the investment process and has made high concentration fund with the current events or simply to give up and buy a few refinements that will strengthen the internal around 35 core holdings. The an index fund. In our view, however, chasing the processes. In the long run, however, it is still the portfolio managers apply the best markets, such as China, or giving up will operations in a company and how much one pays same investment policy as not allow you create the best returns over time. for these that create the value and cause the our other funds, investing in The well-known value investor, Warren Buf- share price of the company to increase. That is undervalued, under-resear- fett, once observed that: “The stock market is a an important point to remember now as we enter ched and unpopular compa- device for transferring wealth from the impatient the second half of 2015. nies. They have a bottom-up to the patient”. His words seem to hold true more The rest of the year may well be an exciting perspective and concentrate than ever now that the markets have entered a period with a potential interest rate hike in the on specific companies and period in which value and company focus is in US and new economic developments in many their intrinsic value. Being such short supply. emerging markets and Europe, amongst other benchmark-agnostic, their In a recent report on active and passive inves- things. In the short term, the return of all our investment decisions will be ting, the fund research company Morningstar equity funds may be influenced more by fluctu- made independently of the concluded that value management has a greater ations than what the companies actually deliver. benchmark index, with the aim chance of long-term success than other types The valuation of many emerging market com- of generating superior returns of active management. We are in no doubt that panies is now attractive compared with those in over time. common sense; coupled with an applied value developed markets and an improvement in global The portfolio may have a focus and stock picking form the best premise economic growth should improve earnings pro- relative bias towards mid-sized for creating excess returns over time, as it has spects for companies in many of these countries. companies, given the portfo- in the past. We wish you a pleasant summer. lio managers´ experience of At times, it may seem as though the opposite finding attractive investment opportunities among such companies. You can find out more at www.skagenfunds. com/focus and read the port- folio managers´ first report on the fund on page 27 of this report. – Leif Ola Rød CEO 2 SKAGEN FUNDS HALF YEAR REPORT | 2015 CONTENT 27 Portfolio managers Filip Weintraub and Jonas Edholm of the newly launched SKAGEN Focus that makes its debut in the Market Report Bloomberg 10 34 Photos: Photos: Corporate bond fund SKAGEN Credit has bought bonds in INEOS, one of the world’s largest petrochemical companies. Bonheur/Ganger Rolf must now be seen more as a company Pictured here are granules manufactured at their facility in Cologne. within renewable energy that also has an option on a future improvement in the rig market. LEADER EQUITY FUNDS FINANCIAL Patience and lessons learned > 2 SKAGEN Vekst > 10 STATEMENT Leif Ola Rød Slight improvement Half year accounts > 36 SKAGEN Global > 14 PORTFOLIO Uphill struggle Return and risk measurements > 39 MANAGERS´ REPORT SKAGEN Kon-Tiki > 18 Staying the course SKAGEN m² > 23 INTRODUCTION SKAGEN seeks to the best of its ability to ensure Rainy quarter thatall information given in this report is correct, How to spend it? > 5 however, makes reservations regarding possible Corporate cash piles have SKAGEN Focus > 27 errorsand omissions. Statements in the report re- increased significantly in the Hunting for exceptional investments flect theportfolio managers’ viewpoint at a given past five years, but what should time, andthis viewpoint may be changed without notice. management do with the money? The report should not be perceived as an offer FIXED INCOME orrecommendation to buy or sell financial in- struments. SKAGEN does not assume respon- FUNDS sibility for direct or indirect loss or expenses incurredthrough use or understanding of the re- Fixed income comment > 31 port. SKAGEN recommends that anyone wishing Long-term interest rates: to invest in our funds contacts a qualified custo- up, sideways or down? mer adviser by telephone on +47 51 80 37 09 or by email at [email protected]. SKAGEN Tellus > 32 Headwinds SKAGEN Credit > 34 Unrest creates opportunities SKAGEN FUNDS HALF YEAR REPORT | 2015 3 SKAGEN FUNDS SKAGEN FOCUS Returns Lead manager: Filip Weintraub Start: 26 May 2015 Return since start* 10 The following tables show the returns for SKAGEN’s 5 funds versus their respective benchmarks in euro. The figures are updated as of 30.06.2015 0 Unless otherwise stated, all performance data in this report is in euro, relates -5 to class A units and is net of fees. -4.7% -7.6% -10 Equity Fund Fixed Income Fund SKAGEN Focus MSCI All Country World Index * Since inception on 26 May 2015 SKAGEN GLOBAL SKAGEN VEKST Lead manager: Knut Gezelius Start: 7 August 1997 Lead managers: Ole Søeberg and Geir Tjetland Start: 1 December 1993 Return past 12 months Average annual return since start Return past 12 months Average annual return since start 20 18.8% 20 25 24.0% 20 14.4% 15.2% 15 15 20 15 10.3% 15 10 10 10 10.2% 10 5 4.4% 5 5 4.3% 5 0 0 0 0 SKAGEN VekstMSCI Nordic/MSCI AC ex Nordic -5 -5 * The benchmarkSKAGEN Global index prior MSCIto 1/1/2010 All Country was Wo therld IndeMSCIx (DailyWorld Tr Indexaded Net Total Return)* * Effective 1/1/2014, the fund’s investment mandate changed. Read more on page 13. The benchmark index prior to 1/1/2010 was the Oslo Stock Exchange Benchmark Index (OSEBX). SKAGEN KON-TIKI SKAGEN m² Lead managers: Kristoffer Stensrud and Knut Harald Nilsson Start: 5 April 2002 Lead managers: Michael Gobitscheck and Harald Haukås Start: 31 October Return past 12 months Average annual return since start Return past 12 months Average annual return since start 25 24.7% 20 20 20 16.5% 20 15 15 15 14.8% 16.2% 13.7% 15 10 10 10 8.6% 7.6% 10 5 5 5 5 2.0% 0 0 0 0 -5 -5 -5 -5 SKAGEN m² MSCI All Country World Index Real Estate IMI SKAGEN Kon-Tiki MSCI Emerging Markets Index SKAGEN CREDIT EUR SKAGEN TELLUS Lead manager: Ola Sjöstrand Start: 30 May 2014 Lead manager: Torgeir Høien Start: 29 September 2006 Return past 12 months Average annual return since start Return20 past 12 months Average20 annual return since start 15 15 15 15 13.4% 10 10 10 10 7.0% 5.9% 5.0% 5 5 5 5 0.1% 0.1% -0.1% 0 0 0 0 -0.2% -5 -5 -5 -5 SKAGEN Credit EUR3 Month EURIBOR SKAGEN TellusJ.P.Morgan Broad Index Unhedged (EUR)* * The benchmark index prior to 1/1/2013 was Barclay’s Capital Global Treasury Index 3-5 years. 4 SKAGEN FUNDS HALF YEAR REPORT | 2015 Portfolio managers´ report Introduction > SKAGEN equity funds returned 3-10% in the first of half 2015, measured in euro. Our bond funds delivered 1.5-2.5%. > 10-year government bond yields spiked up- wards in 2Q 2015 from abnormally low levels. > M&A activity has been heady in 2015 and could beat the previous annual record set in 2007. > Global equities are up 3% year to date in USD. The Chinese stock market rose sharply Photo: Bloomberg Photo: hitting a total market cap of over USD 10 trillion (10,000bn), despite lower economic growth, before falling back again. The US market is USD 25 trillion and the total global Photo: Bloomberg Photo: USA. After 9 consecutive positive quarters, the S&P index market is USD 73 trillion. fell by 0.2% in the quarter. SKAGEN Global continues to be strongly underweight US equities which currently consti- tutes 36% of the fund. Photo: Bloomberg Photo: Volatility. Chinese local shares stood out as a positive in the second quarter, with a 28% increase. The frothy valuations reversed somewhat at the end of the quarter. Pictured: a display showing the Hang Seng Index figure in Hong Kong. On 8 July 2015, the benchmark plunged the most since the global financial crisis Photo: Bloomberg Photo: rippled across Asia. Greek tragedy. Greece has failed to adapt to the new reality of prudent financial management needed in the post financial crisis era. Pictured: queues outside Bank of Greece, Athens. SKAGEN FUNDS HALF YEAR REPORT | 2015 5 PORTFOLIO MANAGERS´ REPORT How to spend it? Corporate cash piles have increased significantly in the past five years, but what should management do with the money? – Ole Søeberg Chief Investment Officer Seven years ago, the financial crisis chang- ving competitiveness and market share.