SJB | Korschenbroich, 23.05.2023.
Im April bewegten sich die europäischen Aktienmärkte leicht nach oben, wobei Immobilientitel, HealthCare, Versicherungen und Reiseanbieter die beste Performance erzielten. Der ECP Strategic Selection Fund – European Value (WKN A14YQK, ISIN LU1169207518) verzeichnete in diesem Marktumfeld leichte Zugewinne von +0,09 Prozent im Berichtsmonat, während sich das Plus seit Jahresbeginn auf nunmehr +7,53 Prozent summiert. Die größten Positivbeiträge zur FondsEntwicklung leisteten Philips, Elekta und Bawag. In seinem aktuellen Monatsbericht analysiert ECP-FondsManager Léon Kirch die jüngsten Marktbewegungen und gibt Auskunft darüber, welche Veränderungen er im Portfolio des ECP-Fonds vorgenommen hat.
Our portfolio saw a flattish performance during April in a market that was slightly up. It was a month were some of the industry sectors were we are the least present, like real estate, health care, insurance and travel & leisure saw the best performance. Markets seem to be complacent with the bankruptcy of several regional banks in the US and with the high(er) interest rates. The first quarter results’ season has been overall well received by markets.
We are happy with our portfolio and did not do any changes during the month. Biggest detractor over the month was STMicro which saw its stock price fall by 21%. The company showed solid Q1 results beating estimates but was cautious for the margin outlook for the second half of the year due to increasing pricing pressure. Our investment case is intact. Biggest contributors were Philips after good results, Elekta and the Austrian bank Bawag, (up 7.5% during the month), where we had increased our position in March. European equity markets remain cheap. In terms of cyclically adjusted price earnings ratio, CAPE, Today, Europe traded at the end of March at 20.4x versus 28.2x in the US. This means Europe’s CAPE valuation today is 28% below the US, a discount nearly double the 15% historical average discount since 1981.
Historically, such high discounts have led to strong outperformance of Europe versus the US market. In terms of individual markets, the cheapest right now are Poland, Germany and Sweden. While Poland remains a special case due to geopolitics, Germany and Sweden look particularly attractive to us right now. In our European portfolio, we hold companies like Fresenius, Adidas, Sandvik or Ericsson. They definitely look too cheap to ignore.
