Die besten Europa Aktienfonds

e-fundresearch: "Which facts & figures are currently relevant to value European equity and how do you interpret these?"

Thorsten Winkelmann, Fund Manager, "Allianz Europe Equity Growth - AT - EUR" (ISIN: LU0256839274) & "Allianz Wachstum Europa - A - EUR" (ISIN: DE0008481821) (21.08.2012): "For us the relevant facts and figures to value European equity have never really changed. The ability to generate sustainable cash flow and earnings growth remains key. As growth investors we are ready to pay a premium for a superior business model but are not willing to overpay. We believe quality companies that can compound their cash-flows through organic growth can allocate capital efficiently and have market leading positions and brands can continue to outperform the broad market. We therefore monitor carefully the development of valuation premiums - they have to be justified by higher ROEs and ROICs. So ultimately by the driver of investment returns superior profitability that persists."

Franz Weis, Fondsmanager, "Comgest Growth Europe Euro" (ISIN: IE0004766675) & "Comgest Europe" (ISIN: LU0039989081) (17.08.2012): "Die Anlagestrategie von Comgest konzentriert sich ausschließlich auf Qualitätswachstumsunternehmen. Wir überzeugen uns zuerst davon, daß ein Unternehmen zweistelliges Gewinnwachstum generieren kann, das auch gut vorhersehbar und weitgehend unabhängig von politischen und makro-ökonomischen Faktoren ist. Erst dann sehen wir uns die Bewertung an: da langfristig die Aktienkurse von der Gewinnentwicklung eines Unternehmens getrieben werden, betrachten wir hauptsächlich das Kurs/Gewinn-Verhältnis,  wobei wir gemäß der Qualität eines Geschäftsmodells und der Nachhaltigkeit des überdurchschnittlichen Wachstum differenzieren."

Mike Clements, Fund Manager, "Franklin European Growth A (acc) EUR" (ISIN: LU0122612848) (21.08.2012): "For much of July, global equity markets were beset by increasing fears about the impact of Spain’s debt problems on the future of the eurozone. Yet all these concerns were already present in previous months, and as July progressed, sentiment lifted somewhat on increasing expectations that policy action was on the cards to boost growth. The European Central Bank (ECB) cut deposit and lending rates to historical lows at the beginning of the month, and the People’s Bank of China also cut rates. But it was a commitment from the ECB president, Mario Draghi, that the bank stood “ready to do whatever it takes” to preserve the single currency that ensured that developed- and emerging-market equity indexes ended July in positive territory."

Alexander Darwall, Fund Manager, "Jupiter JGF European Growth L EUR" (ISIN: LU0260085492) (20.08.2012): "Different investors tend to favour different valuation metrics according to the whims of fashion and the position in the economic cycle. For example, in a growth phase, where cash flow is little more than a promise, metrics such as EV/EBITDA (anticipated earnings) multiples are popular whereas, in the depth of a recession, a cautious measure such as price to book (assets) may be favoured by nervous investors. In the current market, generally favoured metrics include: strong, profitable sales growth that delivers rising cash flows, strong balance sheets and attractive price/earnings multiples. In my opinion, these metrics by themselves are of limited use. I believe, more important is the discovery of businesses that have a unique product or service offering sustainability of earnings with the potential for growth whether in their local markets or internationally."

Paul Casson, Fund Manager, "Henderson HF Pan European Alpha A2 EUR " (ISIN: LU0264597617) (22.08.2012): "European Equities look extremely cheap on almost all metrics (P/E, Shiller P/E, P/B, EV/EBITDA...etc) in absolute terms and versus history. They are also cheap versus bonds that in contrast have dangerously high valuations in a number of countries with two-year government bonds being issued at negative nominal yields in some ‘safe havens’. The fact that investors are willing to pay for the privilege of loaning to certain governments is a bizarre concept and shows the level of fear in markets. These cheap valuations have been the case for some time and to a certain degree are irrelevant in the short term until we get some economic and political stability in the region. Tentative steps are being made on this front and when meaningful progress is made investors will once again focus on these cheap valuations and the attractive opportunities to invest in cheap, well managed, quality companies. Given this, it is hard to believe that equities will not produce impressive returns over the long term."

e-fundresearch: "Please describe your investment process briefly."

Thorsten Winkelmann, Fund Manager, "Allianz Europe Equity Growth - AT - EUR" (ISIN: LU0256839274) & "Allianz Wachstum Europa - A - EUR" (ISIN: DE0008481821) (21.08.2012): "The unique aspect of our European Growth strategy lies within our understanding of growth investing based on a bottom up approach. We find that equity markets tend to overvalue short-term growth while undervaluing long-term growth. This implies investing with horizons of three years or more. We focus on stock picking to identify fully or partly undiscovered structural growth rather than growth momentum. Furthermore we consider the benchmark index to be a poor representation of the investment opportunities available and do not believe that fund managers should be obliged to invest in a stock market or sector, size, regardless where they cannot find a company that meets our demanding stock selection criteria. We are typically fully invested, don’t use derivatives and have a low portfolio turnover rate. What counts is that the investment case for the structural growth path of a company is still intact and if the share price is not yet fully reflecting future growth."

Franz Weis, Fondsmanager, "Comgest Growth Europe Euro" (ISIN: IE0004766675) & "Comgest Europe" (ISIN: LU0039989081) (17.08.2012): "Alle unsere Anlageentscheidungen basieren auf einer fundierten, persönlichen Überzeugung des Fondmanagers. Der Anlageprozess filtert zuerst alle Unternehmen mit zweistelligem Gewinnwachstum, soliden Bilanzen und guten Profitabilitätszahlen heraus. Diese Unternehmen werden dann von Comgests Europa-Team eingehend auf qualitative Aspekte hin analysiert, wie z.B. Markteintrittsbarrieren und Preissetzungsmacht: diese qualitativen Aspekte etablieren die Zuverlässigkeit des zukünftigen Wachstums. Nur wenn ein Unternehmen sowohl hohe Qualitäts- als auch langfristige Wachstumsanforderungen erfüllt, wird die Aktienbewertung in Betracht gezogen. Die Konstruktion des konzentrierten Portfolios mit ca. 30 Titeln erfolgt einzig und allein durch Titelauswahl und ist völlig unabhängig von jeglichen Benchmark-Erwägungen."

Mike Clements, Fund Manager, "Franklin European Growth A (acc) EUR" (ISIN: LU0122612848) (21.08.2012): "As investment managers, we utilize a bottom-up, long-term strategy and therefore try to take advantage of market volatility to gain exposure to companies with what we view as strong and sustainable competitive advantages, solid balance sheets and substantial cash generation. We tend to be contrarian in our style, and our philosophy and process often lead us to segments of the market that are out of favor with other investors."

Alexander Darwall, Fund Manager, "Jupiter JGF European Growth L EUR" (ISIN: LU0260085492) (20.08.2012): "The Jupiter European Growth Fund is very different to most European funds in that I do not run it as a way to “play” Europe. As such, I am not unduly concerned with index risk but I am very concerned about company risk. I am primarily a stock-picking analyst who looks for a very specific type of company. These will have a unique product or service which gives them strong growth prospects - not only in their local markets but internationally. The fact that they are successful on the global stage means they are less likely to be affected by domestic issues. I want growth companies.

I have a clear model for the type of businesses I consider to be long-term ‘winners’: they are providers of specialist products or services often protected by intellectual property rights; they command oligopolistic positions in areas of long-term structural growth. Thus they have little need to weaken their balance sheets by loading up on debt in order to supercharge pedestrian earnings. They have highly competent management teams, are not dependent on currency fluctuations, do not operate in regulated areas and are not part-owned by the French government.

I am out to invest, not to speculate. I avoid herd behaviour and remain disciplined in my approach. My focus is on understanding companies. I have long experience of understanding both the hard factors, such as economics, history, industries, finance as well as the soft factors like company culture and institutional trading behaviour. As a rule, I typically avoid banks because I consider it impossible to fully appreciate the balance sheet risks. If I cannot understand something then I will not invest in it, no matter how large a part of the index it is. I stick to my disciplined approach. In addition, I am not particularly interested in most cyclical companies and am generally underweight in commodities. If I have an advantage then it lies in an ability to understand the fundamentals of the businesses better than the average analyst. Of course, I cannot tell you when the stock market will recognise superior company performance, only that I believe it will do so."

Paul Casson, Fund Manager, "Henderson HF Pan European Alpha A2 EUR" (ISIN: LU0264597617) (22.08.2012): "The investment approach used in the Henderson Horizon Pan European Alpha Fund is first and foremost one of bottom-up stock selection. This is based on fundamental and qualitative analysis of companies and is underpinned by a strong risk control discipline. The fund takes a long-term approach to buying shares and will tend to hold long positions in individual names for an average of two to three years. The fund manager is also able to use short positions. The ability to take short positions (through the use of derivatives) allows the fund manager to control the fund’s net exposure to the market, thus smoothing returns and reducing volatility."

e-fundresearch: "Which over- and underweights do you currently hold in the fund?"

Thorsten Winkelmann, Fund Manager, "Allianz Europe Equity Growth - AT - EUR" (ISIN: LU0256839274) & "Allianz Wachstum Europa - A - EUR" (ISIN: DE0008481821) (21.08.2012): "We see the capex spending cycle of the oil and mining industry going on for a few years. We therefore remain confident in selected investment cases among capital goods. We remain
constructive on IT spending as companies are investing again. We stick to our holdings in the structural winners especially in the software space. Next to this, growing consumption in Emerging Markets remains on our agenda, where brand strength and high entry barriers to entry are of high importance. Selected trends in healthcare build another important part of our strategy, but we will focus on areas where we do not see pressure from healthcare reforms and a threat from patent expiries like for a lot of the big pharma names. In Emerging Markets automation and energy efficiency is of increasing importance, as labor costs and environmental issues are increasing. Inflationary pressures coming from Emerging markets and raw materials have to be monitored, as they are impacting input costs for a couple of companies. We struggle to identify structurally growing franchises among telecom and utility stocks. As we have been for a very long time, we have only very selective holdings in Financials."

Franz Weis, Fondsmanager, "Comgest Growth Europe Euro" (ISIN: IE0004766675) & "Comgest Europe" (ISIN: LU0039989081) (17.08.2012): "Die größten Positionen im Fonds sind Inditex und SAP. Wie Inditex (die Holding-Gruppe mit den Marken Zara und Massimo Dutti) mit den jüngsten Quartalszahlen bewiesen hat, ist das spanische Unternehmen trotz der Wirtschafts- und Bankenkrise in Spanien in der Lage, dynamisches Umsatz- und Gewinnwachstum zu liefern, dank seines Geschäftsmodells und seiner fortlaufenden internationalen Expansion. SAP wächst aufgrund der starken Nachfrage in Schwellenländern, der Notwendigkeit von Unternehmen sich für den Wettbewerb zu rüsten, und durch Innovationen in den Bereichen Datenbanken und Mobilität. Comgests Europa-Fonds meiden seit über 20 Jahren Banken und stark zyklische Branchen wie Autos, Chemie und Rohstoffe."

Mike Clements, Fund Manager, "Franklin European Growth A (acc) EUR" (ISIN: LU0122612848) (21.08.2012): "We continue to believe that the best time for us to consider purchasing European equities, especially in peripheral countries such as Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Italy and Spain, is likely to be over the next six to12 months. We also believe building construction and materials remain attractive industries. Overall, we still believe stock valuations, particularly in Europe, support our optimistic outlook for investment performance potential over the next few years."

Alexander Darwall, Fund Manager, "Jupiter JGF European Growth L EUR" (ISIN: LU0260085492) (20.08.2012): "The Fund is currently overweight Industrials, Healthcare, Basic Materials and Technology compared to the Fund’s benchmark, the FTSE World Europe Index.

The Fund is underweight Financials, Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas. It has zero exposure to Telecoms and zero exposure to Utilities.

The Fund is positioned to aim to benefit from European companies that are exposed to global growth, particularly in fast-growing economies such as Brazil, India and China, and that have strong balance sheets, productivity-enhancing and cost-saving products and services that are attractive."

Paul Casson, Fund Manager, "Henderson HF Pan European Alpha A2 EUR " (ISIN: LU0264597617) (22.08.2012): "Being an absolute return focused fund we do not look at over/underweights but rather absolute weights. The fund currently has its largest net long exposures in the Consumer, Energy and Healthcare sectors. This has resulted from the funds bottom-up investment process."

e-fundresearch: "Please comment on the performance and risk parameters of your fund in the current year as well as over the past calendar years."

Thorsten Winkelmann, Fund Manager, "Allianz Europe Equity Growth - AT - EUR" (ISIN: LU0256839274) & "Allianz Wachstum Europa - A - EUR" (ISIN: DE0008481821) (21.08.2012): "In terms of relative Performance (net) 2009 (+16%) and 2010 (+19%) have been outstanding years while 2007 (0), 2008 (+1) and 2011 (+3) were good years. Relative Performance was strongly driven by our overweight positions through these years and heavily dominated by stock selection. Our portfolio Beta was usually just below 1. The fund has a high active share and the ex post tracking error was between 4- 7% within the past 5 years. The fund was always fully invested and leads most peer groups in Europe over 3 and 5 years. Information ratio is outstanding among its peers."

Franz Weis, Fondsmanager, "Comgest Growth Europe Euro" (ISIN: IE0004766675) & "Comgest Europe" (ISIN: LU0039989081) (17.08.2012): "Der Comgest Growth Europe konnte in 2012 eine Wertsteigerung von knapp 20% erzielen (Stand 31. Juli) und schnitt damit wesentlich besser ab als der MSCI Europe (+9.15%). Auch in den letzten Kalenderjahren lag die Wertentwicklung des Fonds deutlich über der Benchmark: in 2011 um 10.3% und in 2012 um 4.3%. Diese Performance wurde erzielt durch die stetige und dynamische Gewinnentwicklung der Portfoliounternehmen, wogegen die Gewinnprognosen für den Gesamtmarkt in den letzten 18 Monaten ständig nach unten revidiert wurden und letztendlich stagnieren. Zur gleichen Zeit sind Comgests Europa-Fonds dank unserer Qualitätskriterien weit weniger riskant als der Gesamtmarkt: die Volatilität des Comgest Growth Europe liegt in den letzten Jahren bei 12.9% (3 Jahre annualisiert, Stand 31. Juli 2012) und liegt damit um 30% unter der des MSCI Europe. Das Beta des Fonds liegt lediglich bei 0.56 (3 Jahre annualisiert, Stand 31. Juli 2012)."

Mike Clements, Fund Manager, "Franklin European Growth A (acc) EUR" (ISIN: LU0122612848) (21.08.2012): "In July, the fund outperformed on a relative basis. This relative outperformance was driven by stock selection, particularly in financials, energy and industrials. In contrast, while an overweight allocation to the consumer discretionary sector helped relative results, security selection notably weighed on returns. In addition, an underweight position in health care, as well as selection in the sector, was a notable detractor. By the way, as bottom-up stock pickers managing a concentrated “best-ideas” type portfolio we like the volatility that the politicians create as it allows us to buy the kinds of stocks we like at very attractive prices."

Alexander Darwall, Fund Manager, "Jupiter JGF European Growth L EUR" (ISIN: LU0260085492) (20.08.2012): "Current Year
The Fund has performed satisfactorily for the calendar year of 2012. This is a reflection of its main holdings. By and large I have been pleased with their actual results which confirm our analysis of the underlying businesses. These have continued to deliver strong profits despite the difficult economic background because they operate in niche areas where I believe there are long-term structural growth drivers. For example, Novo Nordisk continues to benefit from a rising incidence of Type 2 diabetes, itself linked to a growing obesity problem.

Risk
The Fund is not managed against specific risk objectives such as tracking error or volatility. 

As opposed to interest rate risk, or exchange rate risk, or recession risk, or legislative risk, or key person risk, or inflation risk, or regulator risk etc, the primary risk is specific company risk, i.e. the real underlying risk associated with the prospects for each company in the portfolio. That’s one of the reasons why I do not make any big macro “bets”, preferring to try to find solid business models, i.e. companies that can prosper in a range of different macro scenarios.

Given the above, I aim to have a portfolio where the risks associated with each holding are as uncorrelated as possible. We are able to demonstrate this via attribution analysis (e.g. FactSet) which shows, for example, that over the past 12 months the performance was driven by single stocks, i.e. not by sectors or currency movements etc.

A factor that could be a general threat for the strategy is protectionism; however I think that the broad pattern is still a favourable one: crucially, world trade is increasing.

In the calendar year of 2012 to 31 July 2012, the Fund returned 24.63% compared to 10.03% for its benchmark, the FTSE World Europe (including UK) Index* and 9.61% for the sector average FO Equity Europe inc UK TR (€) although past performance should not be seen as a guide to future performance. It ranked 2nd out of 185 funds in the sector in this period."

* Source: Sector: FE Equity Europe inc UK. Source: FE, income reinvested, net of fees Euro, to 31.07.2012.

Paul Casson, Fund Manager, "Henderson HF Pan European Alpha A2 EUR " (ISIN: LU0264597617) (22.08.2012): "The fund has few rigid limits with respect to risk. This allows the fund manager the flexibility to seek alpha wherever he deems fit for his clients. However risk control plays a large part in the stock picking and portfolio construction. The ability to take short positions has enabled the PM to limit downside risk despite a difficult market environment."

POSITIVE RETURNS IN EACH OF THE LAST THREE YEARS.

The fund continues to perform strongly making new absolute highs."

e-fundresearch: "Did your fund outperform or underperform vs. benchmark over the past 5 years and which part could be linked to securities selection (Performance Attribution)?"

Thorsten Winkelmann, Fund Manager, "Allianz Europe Equity Growth - AT - EUR" (ISIN: LU0256839274) & "Allianz Wachstum Europa - A - EUR" (ISIN: DE0008481821) (21.08.2012): "With more than 8% p.a. the fund outperformed significantly over the past five years. This outstanding relative performance was achieved nearly entirely through stock selection."

Franz Weis, Fondsmanager, "Comgest Growth Europe Euro" (ISIN: IE0004766675) & "Comgest Europe" (ISIN: LU0039989081) (17.08.2012): "Der Comgest Growth Europe erzielte in den letzten 5 Jahren im Vergleich zum MSCI Europe eine Outperformance von 7.5% pro Jahr (Stand 31. Juli 2012). Diese Performance ist zurückzuführen auf die Titelauswahl, da die Portfoliokonstruktion rein aufgrund von Aktienauswahl stattfindet und Länder- oder Branchenüberlegungen keine Rolle spielen."

Mike Clements, Fund Manager, "Franklin European Growth A (acc) EUR" (ISIN: LU0122612848) (21.08.2012): "FTIF Franklin European Growth Fund Result: The Franklin European Growth Fund outperformed in 2Q12, returning approximately -0.8% versus the MSCI Europe Index return of -2.5%. The fund is ranked in the 1st quartile of peers for all periods out to 5-years.
- What Helped: Stock selection was the key driver of performance in the quarter with flat to positive contributions from all sectors except Energy. Financials and Consumer Discretionary holdings were the primary contributors as UK-based insurer Hiscox Ltd, JM AB a Swedish real estate company, Carpetright PLC a UK floorings retailer and Dignity PLC a UK funeral services provider were all positive returners. Other contributors included Consumer Staples company Anheuser-Busch InBev, the Belgian brewer, Koninklijke Vopak NV, a Netherlands-based provider of storage for bulk liquids, and De La Rue PLC, a UK-based currency and secure paper manufacturer, both in the Industrials sector.
       
- What Hurt: Portfolio positioning detracted as the Fund’s sector weightings were not aligned with investor focus on defensive areas in 2Q12. The strategy’s significant underweight to Health Care stocks and overweights to more economically sensitive sectors including Industrials and Consumer Discretionary led to a detraction from allocation. Detractors for the quarter included Homeserve PLC a UK home services insurer (Industrials), Nexans a French cables company (Industrials) and the strategy’s single Energy holding Fugro NV, a Netherlands based provider of geo-science information and services.

- Current Positioning: Fund remains concentrated on best ideas across Europe and market capitalization spectrum, with 25-45 holdings."

Alexander Darwall, Fund Manager, "Jupiter JGF European Growth L EUR" (ISIN: LU0260085492) (20.08.2012): "Over the five calendar years to the 31 July 2012 the Fund outperformed the benchmark, returning a rise of 12.2% against a fall of 17.5% for its benchmark. This was primarily due to stock selection although past performance should not be seen as a guide to future performance."

* Source: Sector: FE Equity Europe inc UK. TR Source: FE, income reinvested, net of fees Euro, to 31.07.2012.

Paul Casson, Fund Manager, "Henderson HF Pan European Alpha A2 EUR" (ISIN: LU0264597617) (22.08.2012): "The fund has very strong risk adjusted returns since Paul Casson took control of the fund in June 2008. The bulk of the returns can be attributed to good stock picking and good balance sheet management (i.e. increasing the funds market exposure during strong market performance and reducing market exposure when market performance is weak)."

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Die gesamte Analyse der besten Europa Aktienfonds inkl. einer Top-10 Auswertung und zahlreichen Charts finden Sie hier!

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Alle Performance Daten der Top-10 Auswertung per 13.08.2012 / Quelle: Lipper 

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