Foord International Fund
For conservative, absolute-return investors
INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE
The fund aims to achieve meaningful inflation-beating US$ returns over rolling five-year periods from a conservatively managed portfolio of global investments reflecting Foord's prevailing best investment view.
FOR INVESTORS
- With a moderate to high risk profile
- Seeking preservation of capital and safe investment growth.
REGISTERED COUNTRIES
Belgium, France, Japan, Luxembourg, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
| Year | Fund Return % | MSCI World Return % | US Inflation % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 (from 10/Mar) | 9.1 | 13.1 | 1.3 |
| 1998 | 13.9 | 24.3 | 1.6 |
| 1999 | -11.7 | 24.9 | 2.7 |
| 2000 | 23.7 | -13.2 | 3.4 |
| 2001 | -4.0 | -16.8 | 1.6 |
| 2002 | 3.2 | -19.9 | 2.5 |
| 2003 | 21.1 | 33.1 | 2.0 |
| 2004 | 13.0 | 14.7 | 3.3 |
| 2005 | 5.8 | 9.5 | 3.3 |
| 2006 | 18.4 | 20.1 | 2.5 |
| 2007 | 12.7 | 9.0 | 4.1 |
| 2008 | -18.4 | -40.7 | 0.0 |
| 2009 | 18.8 | 30.0 | 2.8 |
| 2010 | 10.2 | 11.8 | 1.4 |
| 2011 | -1.1 | -5.5 | 3.0 |
| 2012 | 11.2 | 15.8 | 1.8 |
| 2013 | 15.1 | 26.7 | 1.5 |
| 2014 | -1.9 | 4.9 | 0.7 |
| 2015 | 1.9 | -0.9 | 0.7 |
| 2016 | 1.2 | 7.5 | 2.2 |
| 2017 | 15.5 | 22.4 | 2.0 |
| 2018 | -9.6 | -8.7 | 1.9 |
| 2019 | 17.0 | 27.7 | 2.3 |
| 2020 | 6.8 | 15.9 | 1.3 |
| 2021 | 2.8 | 21.8 | 7.0 |
| 2022 (to 30/Apr) | 3.2 | -13.0 | 3.0 |
The use of MSCI benchmark is for performance comparison only
| Objective |
To achieve meaningful inflation-beating US dollar returns over a full investment cycle. |
| Time horizon |
Longer than five years. |
| Inception date |
2 April 2013 |
| Initial investment amount |
US$10,000 or equivalent |
| Subsequent subscription amount |
US$1,000 or equivalent |
| Significant restrictions |
Complies with UCITS regulation. In addition, the Fund cannot enter into total return swaps, securities lending transactions, repurchase transactions or reverse repurchase transactions or any other securities financing transactions. Only listed derivatives can be used for efficient portfolio management. |
| Income distributions |
A roll-up fund with income being reinvested in the portfolio. |
| Income characteristics |
Zero income yield as it does not distribute its income. |
| Portfolio orientation |
Flexible asset allocation across different asset classes - global equities, listed commodity securities, interest-bearing securities, cash and money market instruments - to achieve its objective. The fund is actively managed without any reference to a benchmark. The Manager actively decides the composition of its portfolio including regional allocation, sector views and overall level of exposure to the market in order to take advantage of investment opportunities.
|
| Risk considerations |
The fund is priced in US dollars. Among others, investment value is subject to foreign exchange risk, market risk and interest rate risk, and credit risk of the issuers. |
| Risk of loss |
Moderate to high in periods shorter than five years. Subject to market volatility, lower in longer term. |
| Security description | Asset class | Country of Listing | Portfolio weight % |
|---|---|---|---|
| FMC Corp | Equity | US | 7.4 |
| SSE PLC | Equity | GB | 5.5 |
| Nestle | Equity | CH | 5.2 |
| Freeport-McMoran Inc | Equity | US | 4.8 |
| CVS Health Corp | Equity | US | 4.8 |
Monthly Commentary – April 2022
- Global developed market equities (-8.3%) slumped on stubbornly high and seemingly accelerating inflation — the spike in the US 10-year yield affected long-duration growth stocks most, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropping 13.3%, its worst monthly performance since October 2008
- Emerging markets (-5.6%) also fell, led by Brazilian equities (-13.7%) which retraced after a market-leading 1Q22 return (+35.9%) driven by the sustained rise in global commodity prices — while Chinese markets (-4.1%) fell on the negative growth effect of its continued zero-covid policy
- World bond markets (-5.9%) fell as developed market bond yields rose markedly on expectations of aggressive policy tightening — investors in US Treasuries are now pricing in additional interest rate hikes of 2.5% by the end of 2022
- 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 —metals face competition from fixed interest instruments whose yields have finally risen on speculation for more aggressive US Federal Reserve tightening compared to prior expectations
- The US dollar rose materially against all major currencies including the euro (-5.2%), British pound (-4.6%) and Japanese yen (-6.3%) — widening interest rate differentials coupled with the currency’s safe-haven status have concurrently served to strengthen the greenback
- The fund’s hedges including the sizable short S&P 500 futures position (+8.9%) contributed materially to fund returns in the declining market — the investment global copper miner Freeport-McMoRan (-18.2%) detracted on falling copper prices
Management Fee (Percentage of the applicable Net Asset Value per share)
Class B: 1.00% (Institutional investors)
Class R: 1.00% (Retail investors)
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