BL Global Flexible EUR Fund's investment strategy is based on a long-term flexible allocation, assigning capital to four main asset classes that tend to be negatively correlated: Equities / Bonds / Gold / Cash.
However, the strategy does not involve market timing or short-term decisions.
Performance overview
*Note: Cumulative performance net of fees (B share) calculated as at 31.05.2022. Source: Lipper. Past performance is no guarantee of future performance.
| YTD | 1 month | 1 year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| BL Global Flexible EUR B Cap | -5.50% | -0.68% | -3.34% |
| Lipper Global Mixed Asset EUR Bal - Global | -7.59% | -3.42% | -1.26% |
Since the beginning of the year, in a context marked by major geopolitical tensions, a significant rise in inflation and volatile financial markets, BL Global Flexible EUR has managed to limit some its decline compared to the Lipper universe of competing funds.
In May, the Fund ended up very slightly down, outperforming its Lipper universe.
Volatility in the equity markets remained moderate during May; the 1.4% decline in the MSCI AC World Index NR in euro was mainly due to the appreciation of the single currency after its weak performance in recent months.
Regional differences were minimal, while at the sector level, the energy sector once again appreciated strongly. It was up by almost 10% over the month and by 40% since the beginning of the year. Conversely, consumer-related sectors remained weak, particularly the consumer discretionary sector.
During May, European and Japanese stocks and the currency allocation weighed on the Fund's performance, while the exposure to US stocks generated a positive contribution. In terms of individual holdings, the main contributors to monthly performance were Gilead Sciences, Enterprise Products Partners, Magellan Midstream Partners and Yum China, while Roche, Nestle, Asahi Intecc, Pigeon and LG Household & Health Care weighed on performance.
Asset allocation
| December 2021 | March 2022 | May 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equities | |||
| Gross exposure | 72.88% | 72.62% | 73.09% |
| Net exposure | 72.88% | 54.39% | 55.34% |
| Fixed Income | 3.95% | 5.03% | 6.79% |
| Gold-related stocks | 12.46% | 13.04% | 12.08% |
| Cash | 10.72% | 9.31% | 8.04% |
During May, the Fund Manager took advantage of the weakness in the bond markets to slightly increase the allocation to bonds, while he initiated a position in the US company Verisign. This company operates a vast network infrastructure that is essential for domain name support; it operates two of the thirteen root servers used to route internet traffic. It also manages the official registry for generic top-level domains including the well-known .com and .net domains.
The gold pocket remained unchanged.