SJB | Korschenbroich, 03.11.2022.
Der Börsenmonat September wurde von unterschiedslosen Verkäufen auf breiter Basis dominiert, was dem MSCI Europe ein Minus von 6,3 Prozent einbrachte. Die Sorgen der Marktteilnehmer kreisten um die Zinserhöhungspolitik der Notenbanken, die geopolitische Unsicherheit sowie die Wahlen in Italien. In diesem angespannten Marktumfeld verzeichnete der ECP Strategic Selection Fund – European Value (WKN A14YQK, ISIN LU1169207518), eine Wertentwicklung von -5,75 Prozent in Euro und entwickelte sich damit besser als seine Benchmark MSCI Europe. Bei den Einzeltiteln lieferten Caixa Bank und ING die größten Positivbeiträge zur Performance. In seinem aktuellen Monatsbericht analysiert ECP-FondsManager Léon Kirch die jüngsten Marktbewegungen und gibt Auskunft darüber, welche Veränderungen er im Portfolio des ECP-Fonds vorgenommen hat.
The month of September was marked by indiscriminate selling, with MSCI Europe down 6.3% during the month. There was a lot for investors to worry about, from hawkish central banks, geopolitical uncertainty with the blowing up of Northstream 1 and 2, political turmoil with the election of the far right in Italy and lack of economic stewardship in the UK under Truss. As we cannot eat relative performance, we only take little comfort in the fact that portfolio lost less than the market overall.
Consumer discretionary and Industrials were the biggest detractors to performance. On a stock level, Porsche Automobil, FLSmidth and Adidas were the biggest detractors. Once again, the stock price of the Spanish lender Caixabank was shining by increasing 10% in an environment of rising interest rates. Holding company Exor and ING also showed a positive performance. We did no changes to the portfolio during the month and maintained our cash position as dry powder. As we enter the Q3 result publication season, we are confident our portfolio companies will continue to show solid earning power in a difficult operating environment of slowing economic growth and tightening monetary conditions.
We believe some quality companies we own have corrected too far and now trade at bargain valuations that will make them solid return contributors in a market rebound. One example is our investment in Logitech that saw its stock price tumble 39% this year and now trades at 11.5 times trailing earnings for a company with a return on equity of 27.5% and 500 mil USD of cash on the balance sheet. The median margin of safety, or discount to fair value, of our portfolio is now at an unseen 47%. The average holding trades below 10 times 2022 earnings. This is hard to resist for a long term investor despite the current uncertainties.
