The Comgest Growth India Fund has passed its tenth anniversary with more than EUR170 million in assets. In the past year has significantly outperformed its index, the MSCI India, returning 60.99% versus 23.87%.
Comgest Growth India is a first quartile fund in its Morningstar category over ten years. The fund has returned 15.4% against its index MSCI India returning 12.4% over the past 10 years. The fund follows the Comgest quality growth approach. In 2014 the fund’s mid cap segment has contributed to strong performance as well as its exposure to infrastructure, capital goods and consumer discretionary stock picks. The investment team is headed by Wojciech Stanislawski, Manish Shah and Vincent Houghton.
Wojciech Stanislawski, portfolio manager, Comgest Growth India fund, says: “The fund’s strong exposure to industrial, infrastructure and consumer franchises has driven relative performance in 2014 in a buoyant Indian equity market triggered by the BJP party winning the election. If the government can execute the agenda of supply-side reforms, it would set very good framework conditions for the Indian economy going forward.
“One stock in the portfolio is Maruti Suzuki, the automobile manufacturer. Suzuki has the widest distribution and service network in comparison to its competitors, with a 44% share of the market. It has benefitted from the growing consumer discretionary spend along with the social trend of the rise of the middle class in India. Comgest Growth India holds Suzuki as one of its top five holdings. The stock has been one of the top contributors to the fund’s absolute performance over the past 10 years.”
The Comgest Growth Latin America fund also recently marked its five year anniversary, in December 2014. The fund has EUR50 million AUM and has returned 1.68% since inception, outperforming the MSCI Emerging Markets Latin America index which has returned -1.97%. The fund has a five-star Morningstar rating and was in the first quartile over five years according to Morningstar data. The fund has performed well due to positions in fast-growing companies, purchased when they were at an inflection point. The investment team is headed by Charles Biderman, Juliette Alves and Wojciech Stanislawski. Combined they have over 32 years industry experience.
Juliette Alves, portfolio manager, Comgest Growth Latin America fund, says: “We have a strong conviction in the leading Brazilian dental services firm OdontoPrev as it boasts double-digit earnings growth and delivers a 5% dividend yield. Generally speaking, the fund does not succumb to unjustified periods of euphoria and is resistant in declining markets, which has led to its outperformance of the index.”
