Eric Sturdza Investments, the $2.8bn independent investment Fund company, announced today several updates to its flourishing Strategic European Smaller Companies Fund managed by Geneva based Pascal Investment Advisers S.A.
Since inception in May 2015 the Fund has returned 57% to investors, significantly outperforming its benchmark by 42%. This exceptionally strong absolute and relative performance translates into an annualised return of 8.5% compared with 2.6% for the benchmark over more than 5 years.
The updates are being made to closer align the prospectus with the Fund. There are no changes to the investment process or how the Fund is managed, which has proven to be very successful since inception. ‘High Conviction & Concentration’ and ‘Discipline & Prudence’ remain the pillars of the investment philosophy.
The Fund’s name is being changed to the Strategic European Silver Stars Fund. The new name references the Alpine Edelweiss or ‘Silver Star’ flower, which traditionally grows in unforgiving conditions at very high altitudes. The little white flower is a symbol of bravery and perseverance for those able to seek it out and embodies the ESG beliefs of the manager.
The Edelweiss flower grows in very specific parts of the Alpine region where the localised conditions meet its exacting requirements, in a similar way to how the Fund’s investment team select their investments. The Alpine region also straddles the countries where many of the Fund’s investment ideas are sourced, with companies in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Germany typically representing more than half of the portfolio.
“We have always prided ourselves on finding lesser known investment ideas via a detailed fundamental research process, searching beyond the familiar paths and themes to build a differentiated portfolio that can thrive over the long term, surviving even the harshest market environments.”
Bertrand Faure, Portfolio Manager of the Fund
The Fund’s liquidity terms have been improved, enabling investors to trade on a daily, rather than weekly basis, with one day’s notice for subscriptions and five days’ notice for redemptions, increasing flexibility for investors.
The Fund’s market capitalisation constraints have also been removed. The bias towards small and mid-cap companies comes from the investment team’s fundamental 360-degree private equity style proprietary research, rather than being the result of a specific restriction in their mandate, and consequently this bias will remain.
* Performance as at 30th November 2020, figures provided by EISSML. Individual performance of the Fund may vary and historical data is not an indication of future results.
