Wise Funds are proud to be announced as the winner of the Citywire Wealth Manager Investment Performance Awards for the best aggressive portfolio with TB Wise Multi-Asset Growth. Please click on the link below to see the article in full
Wise Funds prefers to see its winning portfolio as a growth mandate, rather than an aggressive one, and targets performance that is ‘better than equities with less volatility’.
The group’s Wise Multi-Asset Growth portfolio is up 47.52% over three years to the end of June, compared to the ARC Sterling Equity Risk PCI index’s rise of 29.5% over the same period.
Over the past 12 months the portfolio has lagged its peers, with co-portfolio manager Vincent Ropers saying this has been due to an underweight in sovereign debt and technology stocks.
‘We have some exposure to tech through the Herald Investment Trust, a tech fund with overweight positions in the UK, which we think is more attractively valued than big tech players in the US,’ he said.
UK stocks and value-tilted investments have also been a drag on relative performance this year, with the market now pricing in a ‘very deep recession’, Ropers says. However, after a prolonged period of underperformance, value turned sharply in September, which will be hugely beneficial to the fund, he notes.
‘One month of performance doesn’t make a trend but, historically, when value starts to perform, it happens in an explosive and sustained fashion, so we are monitoring this development closely,’ he said.
‘The disparity between value and growth has been at levels we have never seen.’
Key value holdings include the Man GLG Undervalued Assets and JO Hambro UK Equity Income funds.
Elsewhere, Ropers has taken profits from private equity, accessed through investment trusts, after discounts tightened and valuations soared. He has also locked in some gains from gold, which has been a standout performer this year, but the fund has maintained a holding in the Merian Gold & Silver fund.