Knights of Columbus Limited Duration Fund Knights of Columbus Core Bond Fund Knights of Columbus Long/Short Equity Fund Knights of Columbus Large Cap Value Fund Knights of Columbus Large Cap Growth Fund Knights of Columbus Small Cap Fund Knights of Columbus U.S. All Cap Index Fund Knights Of Columbus Real Estate Fund Knights of Columbus International Equity Fund Semi Annual Report | April 30, 2021 The Advisors’ Inner Circle Fund III THE ADVISORS’ INNER CIRCLE FUND III KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS APRIL 30, 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS Letter to Shareholders ...................................................................................1 Schedules of Investments ................................................................................4 Statements of Assets and Liabilities ......................................................................59 Statements of Operations ...............................................................................61 Statements of Changes in Net Assets .....................................................................63 Financial Highlights ....................................................................................72 Notes to Financial Statements ...........................................................................74 Disclosure of Fund Expenses ............................................................................89 Renewal of Investment Advisory Agreement and Subadvisory Agreements ......................................91 Review of Liquidity Risk Management Program .............................................................93 The Funds file their complete schedules of investments with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) for the first and third quarters of each fiscal year as an exhibit to its reports on Form N-PORT (Form N-Q for filings prior to March 31, 2020). The Funds’ Forms N-Q and Form N-PORT reports are available on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov, and may be reviewed and copied at the SEC’s Public Reference Room in Washington, DC. Information on the operation of the Public Reference Room may be obtained by calling 1-800-SEC-0330. A description of the policies and procedures that the Funds use to determine how to vote proxies relating to fund securities, as well as information relating to how the Funds voted proxies relating to fund securities during the most recent 12-month period ended June 30, is available (i) without charge, upon request, by calling 1-844-523-8637; and (ii) on the SEC’s website at http://www.sec.gov. THE ADVISORS’ INNER CIRCLE FUND III KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS APRIL 30, 2021 LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS (Unaudited) Dear Fellow Shareholders: It certainly has been an eventful year as we have moved through the Covid environment and the impact of political elections, societal issues, and no lackof items to discuss in the capital markets. The U.S. appears to be emerging from the depths of Covid into a further state of reopening. As I pen this on May 17th, the gym I visit every morning offered optional masks for the first time since their reopening. It felt a little strange, but liberating, nonetheless. Since we left our office about 14 months ago, I am happy to report that we have worked effectively and efficiently in our home environments. Knights of Columbus and KoCAA are both looking forward to a return to the office that should commence after Labor Day. When Covid first hit last March, the U.S. economy was performing relatively well with low unemployment and underemployment, strong business and consumer confidence, low interest rates and inflation and wage growth that was benefitting a very broad swath of the population, particularly low wage earners. And then everything changed. Once the search for toilet paper ended, we were heading towards election season and we saw the election of a new President, an equal senate (although on 50/50 votes, the Democrats maintain the tie break with the vote of the Vice President) and a narrower Democratic margin in the House of Representatives. Many are already looking forward to the mid-term elections to see if there is a switch back. At present, we have a renewed migrant crisis on our southern border, Israelis and Palestinians are battling, nascent seeds of inflation might be taking root, and we have product shortages given kinks and breaks in the supply chain. I am not sure when “just in time” inventory became a thing, but I do know that it is often attributed to Toyota. The theory is that companies maintain very lean inventory, ordering what they need so as not to have too much working capital tied up in inventory which, theoretically, can maximize both efficiency and profitability. This all works predicated on an efficient and smooth supply chain. With the breaks in Covid, we are now seeing the hoarding of certain raw materials which is pressuring an already stressed supply chain and causing pricing pressures. The more skeptical among us, believe that the relaxation of the mask mandate may be to create a diversion from the troubles of the day. As of the end of the first quarter, Gross Domestic Product (“GDP”) grew by 6.4% for the last three months and 0.4% over the trailing four quarters, erasing the -9.0% annual GDP growth rate ending June 2020. Of course, the big story of the day is inflation and we saw the headline rate grow to a 4.2% annual rate and a 0.3% growth rate factoring out food and energy. The key is that annual consumer prices bottomed at 0.1% in May 2020. We are more acutely watching the inflation rate as compared to July and August of last year when the economy began to open. The evaluation is whether this is transitory inflation or if we are starting an inflationary cycle. It is somewhat difficult to look at inflation relative to the bond market because the Federal Reserve (“Fed”) continues with the purchase of $120 billion per month in Treasury securities. By keeping up this technical demand for Treasuries, interest rates have remained constrained versus where they would have likely been without the Fed purchases. We are looking at employment and wages as two other insights as to the direction of interest rates. As Covid realities set in in April 2020, we saw the unemployment rate increase from 4.4% in March 2020 to 14.8% in April 2020. The unemployment rate has steadily declined to an April 2021 level of 6.1%. Over the same period, we have seen underemployment decline from 22.9% last April to 10.4% at the end of April 2021. While this appears to be robust improvement, we are also looking at the participation rate, which was 63.3% at year-end 2019, declined to 60.2% at the end of April 2020 and has improved to 61.7% as of April 2021. We still have 1.6 percentage points of people that were in the labor force sitting out of the job market. We believe, part of this is due to the enhanced unemployment benefits and a part of the working population that left the labor force to care for children. A robust job market could kindle further wage growth and be inflationary. As certain benefits are expiring, we are seeing wage growth of 1.2% year over year and this is declining from 4-5% wage growth from the various stimulus packages. Industrial Production is growing at 16.5% year over year as some of the weak months roll off and we have had a string of positive months in this index, including the most recent index release in April. Capacity Utilization is 74.9% versus 77.2% at year-end 2019 and factory usage is well off the low of 64.2% in April 2020. Factory Orders and Durable Goods also continue to show positive momentum. As mentioned earlier, we are starting to see inflation in raw materials while the combination of shortages, demand for finished goods and a high demand for labor, particularly in several specialized areas, may cause inflation. There has been considerable coverage in the financial press that the rise in consumer savings leaves a lot of dry powder in the hands of consumers and could cause significant demand led inflation. With that said, we are trying to discern whether the excess savings is being viewed as wealth or excess savings. If these savings are viewed as wealth, it is likely that it will be spent more slowly because wealth is not viewed as transactional. If the excess savings are viewed as savings, this could be the source of the consumer led demand. These items represent a few of the factors we are considering as the worker continues to emerge from Covid. During the last six months, Knights of Columbus Core Bond Fund, I Shares, returned -0.17% versus -1.52% for the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index and -0.36% for the Lipper Core Bond classification. In general, an underweight position in Treasuries and strong issue selection in corporate and mortgage-backed securities benefitted performance. During the last six months, Knights of Columbus Limited Duration Fund, I Shares, returned 0.67% versus 0.23% for the Bloomberg Barclays 1-3 Year Government/Credit Index and 1.28% for the Lipper Short Investment Grade Debt classification. In general, overweight positions in and strong issue selection in corporate and mortgage-backed securities benefitted performance relative to the benchmark. Relative to the Lipper fund classification, our focus on investment grade securities hurt as high yield securities performed better as the impact of Covid began to wane on the economy. During the last six months, Knights of Columbus Large Cap Growth Fund, I Shares, returned 21.37% versus 24.31% for the Russell 1000 Growth Index and 25.84% for the Lipper Multi-Cap Growth Classification. In general, issue selection in technology and not owning Amazon hurt performance. 1 THE ADVISORS’ INNER CIRCLE FUND III KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS APRIL 30, 2021 During the last six months, Knights of Columbus Large Cap Value Fund, I Shares, returned 37.67% versus 36.30% for the Russell 1000 Value Index and 39.70% for the Lipper Multi-Cap Value Classification.
Details
-
File Typepdf
-
Upload Time-
-
Content LanguagesEnglish
-
Upload UserAnonymous/Not logged-in
-
File Pages96 Page
-
File Size-