Objective

Seeks capital appreciation through investment in European equities with market capitalization greater than 65 million euros. Focuses exclusively on developed European markets.

Strategy

Diversify portfolio using strict controls on the level of investment in any particular industry to maximise the impact of individual stock selection – assess relative earnings strength and valuation discrepancies within industry groups, based upon the premise that stock markets are reasonably, but not perfectly, efficient; investor sentiment is considered through analysis of earnings revisions, analyst recommendations and price behavior.

Fund Facts
Asset Manager
  • Degroof Petercam Asset Management, Brussels, Belgium
Benchmark MSCI Europe Index
Fund Inception Date July 9, 2010
Mimimum Investment €50,000
Expense Ratio 1.55%

Annual Average Total Returns
(%) as of

Trailing 3 Months 1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
European Equity Fund 6.09 16.13 7.17 6.48 4.55
Benchmark 6.49 16.57 10.14 10.50 7.08
MSCI Europe Index 0.83 29.48 8.51 8.82 10.39
Calendar Year 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014
  • Returns are presented net of fees and include the reinvestment of income and past performance is not indicative of future results. Net of fees includes management fees, operating expenses, and fee reductions and/or expense reimbursements. See the fund prospectus for additional information.
  • Since inception performance for each benchmark index is calculated based on the inception date of each corresponding Fund share class and reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes.
  • 2Q 2021 Performance Review

    12-Month Review

    • Excess return is generated through stock selection. Outperformance was concentrated in Industrials and Financials. Sectors that adversely affected results were Information Technology and Consumer Discretionary.
    • Negative impact from Information Technology was due to a combination of owning cheaper names and not owning expensive names.

    3-Month Review

    • Stock selection within sectors contributed to almost all excess returns.
    • Overweight to the lowest Price/Book quintile and underweight to the highest P/B were the primary driver of underperformance.
    • Stock decisions in Consumer Discretionary, Information Technology, and Health Care were the primary detractors to relative performance.

    Current Positioning

    •  The weighted average market cap of the portfolio is less than half that of the benchmark index.
    • The overall P/E and P/B ratios are lower than the index.
    • Sector weights do not deviate significantly from the index.
    • Excess return is generated by quantitative and fundamental stock analytics within sectors.
  • Fund Fact Sheet

    PDF
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