Page 166 - Profile's Unit Trusts & Collective Investments - March 2025

CHAPTER 9

M&G Global Equity Feeder Fund
Sector: Global–Equity–General
Portfolio manager: Michael Cook
Benchmark: MSCI All Country World index

Returns to investors 1 year 3 years
M&G Global Equity Feeder Fund 19.31% 11.53%
Sector Average 16.01% 8.14%
Inflation (CPI) 3.02% 5.10%
ProfileData performance stats to 31 December 2024: CAGR with dividends reinvested
Please describe your investment universe.
The investment process underpinning the M&G Global Equity Feeder Fund is entirely global,
encompassing stocks from both developed and emerging markets across all sectors and
capitalisations. For us to consider a company investible, it must possess requisite price-volume
data, be transactable – demonstrating a market capitalisation and liquidity above our minimum
thresholds – and have sufficient analyst coverage. This typically translates to approximately 10 000
companies at any given point in time. Given our data-centric approach to modelling, we go to great
lengths to ensure that we utilise the cleanest and most up-to-date data available. Consequently,
when training our models, we employ a deep historical dataset comprising companies that have
been active at any point over this period, which corresponds to more than 30 000 unique
companies over the past 30 years.
Please comment on your investment year (January - December 2024) from a fund manager’s
point of view.
Over the year, global equity markets navigated a dynamic backdrop of easing inflation, evolving
monetary policies and shifting geopolitical influences. To the surprise of many market
participants, global equities robustly dispelled concerns and delivered an outstanding performance
in 2024, albeit one driven by an exceptionally concentrated cohort of US mega-cap technology
companies.
In the initial months of 2024, markets were buoyed by improving economic data and the
anticipation of more accommodative central bank stances. Markets across the US, Japan and
Europe experienced a robust rally. Despite a fading bond market recovery, our portfolio –
constructed with constrained exposures to country, currency and industry – capitalised on active
stock selection and careful style management to secure gains.
In the ensuing months, investor confidence was further tested as more than 60 countries held
government elections. Most notably, sentiment wavered in anticipation of the US election and
amid mounting concerns over a potential re-emergence of policies reminiscent of the Trump
administration. These uncertainties, combined with the spectre of trade tariffs, created an
environment in which market sentiment was both buoyant and cautious. Although technology and
other growth sectors drove much of the initial momentum, our deliberate tilt towards smaller-cap
and more volatile stocks proved to be a relative headwind.
Mid-year, market conditions grew more mixed as regional disparities emerged amidst
geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic uncertainties. There was a noticeable rotation into
high-growth and momentum-oriented equities which helped support overall advances, yet our
portfolio’s exposure to equities with elevated beta and earnings variability continued to challenge
returns. Furthermore, the concentrated performance of benchmark indices – largely driven by a
handful of mega-cap technology names – highlighted the difficulty of achieving broad-based
returns in an environment of sectoral imbalances.
In the latter part of the year, heightened market volatility became evident as political
developments, trade tariff concerns and mixed earnings signals induced uneven regional
performances. North American markets benefitted from gradual policy adjustments and resilient
economic indicators, whereas Europe and parts of Asia contended with more adverse conditions.

164 Profile’s Unit Trusts & Collective Investments — Understanding Unit Trusts