Foord Global Equity Fund (Luxembourg)

Monthly Commentary – April 2022

• Global equities (-8.0%) slumped on US Federal Reserve communications that indicated more aggressive interest rates interventions to tackle persistently high inflation — while strict city-wide Chinese lockdowns continue to pressure supply chains and the Russia-Ukraine war distorts energy and commodity markets
• All developed markets ended lower, with US bourses (-9.1%) and European stocks (-5.8%) leading the declines —   New Zealand equities (-9.5%) fell sharply as the central bank aggressively raised rates by 50bps
• Emerging markets (-5.6%) were mostly lower with some exceptions — materials exposed South American markets Chile (-12.3%), Peru (-17.3%) and Brazil (-13.7%) were sharply down on inflation concerns and commodity retracement
• All sectors were lower apart from defensive consumer staples (+0.4%) — although the fall in the energy sector (-1.3%) was relatively small after three months of gains and the sector is the only one with a positive year-to-date return 
• The selloff in growth sectors picked up pace with tech (-11.7%), consumer discretionary (-11.0%) and communication services (-12.5%) lower — as the risk of higher rates and lower-than-expected earnings guidance pressured growth prospects
• Oil (+1.3%) gained marginally but was volatile intramonth with prices driven by uncertainty on supply, strategic reserves and Russian sanctions — soft commodities including wheat (+3.8%), soybean (+5.6%) and corn (+9.3%) rose as weather, the Ukraine war and high fertilizer costs were worries for crop yields
• Precious metals gold (-2.0%) and silver (-5.5%) declined — non-interest bearing metals face competition from fixed instruments whose real yields have finally risen above zero on speculation for more aggressive US Federal Reserve tightening 
• The fund outperformed the index — driven by consumer staples, energy and consumer discretionary allocations

Management Fee (Percentage of the applicable Net Asset Value per share)
Class R: 0.85% + 15% of outperformance over the benchmark
The annual fee comprises a fixed standard fee plus a performance fee, subject to an overall minimum
The annual fee may be adjusted up daily (subject to fulfilling the performance conditions) by the performance fee, calculated as the difference between the portfolio performance and the benchmark return for the same period multiplied by the performance fee sharing rate