Performance Review 2006
Thomas Harmer: "Good Stock picking as well as outperformance of Small Caps."Performance Review 2007
Thomas Harmer/ Daniel Stössl: "Transition year and fund manager change."
Performance Review 2008
Daniel Stössl: "Inline performance during Financial Crisis – Banks exposure did hurt."
Performance Review 2009
Daniel Stössl: "Market recovery, good performance of cyclical recovery plays, key was to be not too conservative as there was a strong performance of the more cyclical sectors, as the financial crisis unwinded."
Performance Review 2010
Daniel Stössl: "Smaller Companies performed better than large caps, cautious stance on banks and positive view on oil price/commodities helped, successful stock picking."
Performance 2011 - Year-to-Date
Daniel Stössl: "Outperformance of the large Caps (Eurostoxx 50) vs the Benchmark MSCI Europe- some bad stock picks year to date(e.g. Nokia)."
Performance since 2006
Thomas Harmer until 2007/06- Daniel Stössl thereafter: "Overall the fund performed ok compared with the peer group and the Benchmark MSCI Europe."
Investment Process and Strategy – How does the Fund Manager invest?
Daniel Stössl: "The fund is managed actively, whereby most of the performance should be generated via bottom up stock picking. Furthermore this is some sectoral deviation from the benchmark, and a slight value bias in the Fund
The stock selection process is twofold. First there are quantitative models, which look at valuation versus the sector, earnings estimates, analyst sentiment, relative strength and EPS growth.
In a second step there is a qualitative overlay, which looks at factors like the competitive landscape, barriers to entry and management quality.
The fund is not very concentrated, has a low portfolio turnover and uses usually active weights of 50 – 150 BP per position."
Investment Outlook
Daniel Stössl: "The current situation is dominated by fears about the sovereign crisis and a further mid cycle slowdown in the USA. However the earnings power of the companies, the good balance sheets and moderate valuation as well as the growth potential of the emerging markets should in the mid term support the performance of the global and European stock markets.
Given the way the fund is structured the relative performance versus the benchmark is mostly determined by the stock-picking and there should not be any systematic relative performance difference between periods of positive or negative returns."
