The Investec Value fund is the best performing unit trust over the last ten years with annualised returns of 30%. John Biccard, portfolio manager of Investec’s Value fund shares his views.
Investec Value fund – celebrating ten years of exceptional performance
- Exceptional performance was achieved through sticking to a strategy and not being swayed by market opinion.
- The value fund’s biggest outperformance occurred between 2001 and 2004, local equities rallied strongly and the rand depreciated sharply – the value fund had high exposure to domestic equities, despite market consensus to invest offshore.
- The fund’s excellent returns can be attributed to our value style of investing – even at the height of the commodity bubble, the fund had no exposure to resources stocks.
- Value style of investing outperforms other styles over longer periods (5 years +) but may underperform the broader market in the short term.
- We use a bottom-up stock picking strategy & favour shares that are undervalued, and trade below their intrinsic value.
- Current outlook: for the first time in ten years we believe there is better value in international equity markets than in SA.
- The fund is currently fully invested offshore and also favours investments in gold.
- John favours stocks in the US, Europe, Japan and Israel
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