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Our quarterly portfolio video update about our Managed Portfolio Service
Watch previous quarterly updates about our Managed Portfolio Service (MPS)

Q2 2024

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    Simon Taylor: Hello, good day and welcome. My name is Simon Taylor, Head of Strategic Partnerships here at Investec Wealth & Investment, part of the Rathbones Group. It's my pleasure to welcome you to this quarter's webinar on our Managed Portfolio Service. As ever, I'm joined by Andrea Yung and Ronelle Hutchinson, Investment Directors.

    This has been another eventful quarter. Both from a market perspective and also from a macroeconomic perspective. We've seen election outcomes in Indonesia, Turkey, Spain, and then more recently in the U.K. and France. The global economy has shown signs of moderate growth, most notably in the U.S. And China, despite concerns over inflation and geopolitical tensions.

    We've seen major stock markets showing reasonable returns, with the U.S. and U.K, leading amongst that group. We've seen some notable corporate, announcements over the quarter, most notably NVIDIA. So, to look at the quarter and the macroeconomic environment, I'm pleased to hand over to Ronelle Hutchinson.

    Ronelle Hutchinson: Thanks, Simon. Equities have continued their rally in the second quarter of the year. The S&P500 is up 4%. The FTSE100 is up 3.4% over the quarter, and Europe is up 0.9%. Japanese equities, however, has struggled. Delivering negative returns weighed down by currency depreciation. Bonds have also disappointed, delivering negative returns pretty much across the board due to the fact that the much-anticipated interest rate cuts by the Fed and the BOE have been delayed due to sticky services inflation. Over the quarter, we experienced a divergence in growth in developed markets. Economic data in recent months from the U.S. has begun to disappoint. What we're showing in this chart is the city economic surprise index for the U.S., the U.K. and Europe. The black line is the U.S. and as you can see, this chart is in negative territory, indicating a slowdown in the U.S. in the months ahead, while the lighter charts, the blue and the grey are for the U.K. and Europe. As you can see, this is in positive territory, confirming a recovery in these regions. While inflation has moderated from the highs that we experienced in 2022, there have been bumps in the road in recent months. What we show in the charts on the left is the U.S. inflation breakdown. This disinflation trend has stalled, specifically for headline inflation in the U.S., and this is the black line in the chart. This is the inflation index that is dominated by food and energy prices, and in recent months, this has risen, despite expectations of this moderating. On the left-hand side, we have U.K. inflation data. It's been pretty much a similar story, but for different reasons. Under the hood, U.K. core services inflation specifically here has disappointed and remained sticky, buoyed by higher wages. The good news is that headline inflation in the U.K., which is the dark black line, has moved decisively lower. It's currently at 2%, which is the target level of the BOE. Nevertheless, the market remains optimistic about the outlook for interest rate cuts in the U.S. and the U.K. and what we show here is the market implied policy rates for the three major central banks, the U.S. and the U.K. there being the black and the grey line, and as you can see, the market is still discounting lower interest rates for the U.S. and the U.K. by the end of the year. In fact, the market is expecting the BOE to cut interest rates as early as August, and the Fed is anticipated to cut interest rates at the September meeting.

    But regardless of the timing of interest rate cuts, the fundamentals for the U.K. consumer have improved. What we show here is the monthly ASDA income tracker. It's a comprehensive measure of the discretionary spend that is available to the U.K. household, and in this chart, as you can see, it is booming. It is up 15% year on year in May, and this is thanks to lower energy bills and higher wages.

    Currently this is £239 per week, and it is now back pretty much to the highs that we experienced during the pandemic. This combined with a U.K. economy that is growing again after stagnating, bodes really well for U.K. equities. What we show in this chart is the quarter and quarter GDP growth, in the U.K. in recent months. As you can see, that has moved decidedly positive. Exiting the mild recession the U.K. experienced in 2023, we think the outlook for the U.K. Economy has improved. We think that earnings should recover, and this should support U.K. equities. As a result, we are up weighting U.K. equities within portfolios.

    While fixed income assets have disappointed this year, we believe that the high real yields that are on offer still make this an attractive asset class. As we show in this particular chart, we show the yield on fixed income assets in the U.S. and the U.K. relative to current inflation in these particular regions.

    And as you can see, they are attractive yields on offer. In addition,  in the unlikely event that we experience a U.S. recession or a geopolitical shock, fixed income assets can still provide stability to the portfolio. Particularly where we see the fact that in the U.S. we have stretched valuations at the index level.

    Simon Taylor: Thank you, Ronelle. I'd just like to summarise your points from that session. We're clearly seeing a divergence of growth in developed markets at the moment. The U.S. is slowing, having said that, the U.K. and Europe are improving. With that, we see a strong opportunity for equities, but active management is important.

    With the removal of political uncertainty in the U.K., we do think the prospects for U.K. equities are improving as well. Service inflation is continuing to hold back central banks from reducing interest rates, and with that, bonds have performed not as we would have hoped in the quarter. But we do think the prospects for bonds improves as interest rates reduce.

    So with all of that, I'd like to hand over to Andrea Yung to talk about how the portfolios have performed over the quarter.

    Andrea Yung: Thanks, Simon. So, across our models, we've maintained our asset allocation positioning over the quarter.

    Using the balance model as an example, we've continued to hold a slight underweight position to equities. While maintaining an overweight to fixed income. We have however, made a couple of key changes within our equity allocation. Firstly, we've increased our exposure to the U.K. We've seen for a while that U.K. markets have looked relatively cheap.

    However, we've been quite hesitant to add exposure here as the U.K. has continued to face particular headwinds of negative sentiment and economic uncertainty. More recently, we're now seeing those economic concerns ease. We've got more political stability and we're starting to see that positive turn in sentiment, and it's a combination of these factors which lead us to believe that now's the time to take advantage of these opportunities.

    We've also slightly reduced our position to emerging markets. Now since the start of the year we've seen positive performance in the region, however there are challenges that still exist for these countries, most notably in China. Although we believe emerging markets will benefit from interest rate cuts in the U.S. and a weaker dollar, we are cautious about being overly exposed at this moment in time.

    So, in terms of fund changes in the U.K., we've increased our exposure through the Vanguard FTSE 100 index, and that's to gain exposure to U.K. large cap companies in a cost-effective way. Within our higher risk portfolios, we've also increased our exposure to Man GLG Undervalued Assets, a value focused fund with over 50% allocated to mid and small cap companies.

    Higher interest rates have been a huge headwind for mid and small caps over recent years, and we believe that the strong potential embedded within these companies is interest rates fall. Within emerging markets, we've trimmed our positions, but we remain diversified with exposure to both growth and value funds.

    It's important to note that our exposure to emerging markets is through actively managed funds, and we believe it's imperative to utilise the expertise of active fund managers to be able to navigate the risks and take advantage of opportunities within the region. It's important to note the concentration risks that persist in global and U.S. index funds. Although these stocks have been huge contributors to the market rally, we're starting to see a broadening out of market returns as inflation eases. Investors are starting to look at other areas of the market outside their magnificent seven, which appear better value. The potential sector rotation will impact these concentrated passive funds. Therefore, we believe it's important to remain and to have an active approach.

    Turning to performance, at the start of the year we held a degree of caution for equity markets given the economic uncertainty and persistent inflation. As a result, our portfolios were underweight in equities. Now what's transpired over the year is actually strong performance in these equity markets, mainly driven by a select number of mega cap U.S. companies.

    Even though we've had less risk embedded into our portfolios, our performance has still held up well over the first half of the year. Our U.S. equity allocation, as one may expect, has been the largest contributor to returns across the portfolios, and this has been closely followed by our active positions in Asia and emerging markets.

    Now what's disappointed so far this year? It's been our exposure to both fixed income bonds and property. These assets are sensitive to interest rates, and with higher interest rates holding, the returns have been somewhat limited. However, we believe that interest rates have peaked, and as cuts prevail, that's when we'll start to see positive price movement for these types of assets.

    Our one-year performance, again, tells a similar story to our six-month figures. Equity markets have rallied, and despite our underweight position, our portfolios have still participated well on the upside. The key attributors to performance have really been our geographic positioning and strong fund selection.

    Finally, just looking at our performance figures since inception, dating back to February 2015, this highlights how we've performed long term throughout different market conditions. With our focus on risk management, we've been able to offer a degree of protection in periods of market weakness, while still capturing market upside, and we've outperformed the ARC peer group.

    The final thing to highlight is our new quarterly reports. We've designed these reports to really help support advisors. When analysing and reviewing our models within these reports, we now go into further detail on the underlying positioning, doing a deeper dive into exposure across the market cap spectrum, and also looking at exposure to value and growth, we have greater analysis on performance attribution, explaining reasons behind our relative performance.

    Whether this is the result of our asset allocation decisions or fund selection. We also provide greater detail on portfolio positioning and outlook. We hope that these provide enough information to fully understand our portfolios, not only reflecting on how they've performed and why, but also how we're positioned for the future.

    Simon Taylor: Thank you for that presentation Andrea. I think some of the key takeaways I took from that are that we do see value in the U.K. and we're taking advantage of opportunities there. Despite the strong performance of passive funds, we are being mindful of the concentration risk and sector rotation. For that very reason, our portfolios are actively managed. Despite our lower equity exposure over the quarter, with risk management being key to our investment process, our portfolios have kept pace with the peer group. So some very strong points from your presentation there.

    Now turning to questions that we've received from investors over the quarter.

    So, Andrea, in your presentation, you mentioned, that we'd improved our quarterly reporting. Can you bring that to life for advisors, please?

    Andrea Yung: So really what we've designed, is a report for advisors to be able to utilise these documents and really understand and review our models.

    So, we go into further detail looking at not only how the portfolio is positioned, but also having a look at how it's performed, greater analysis on attribution, and a forward outlook as well. So how are we currently positioned and what do we expect going forward.

    Simon Taylor: Now we're changing the subject a little bit. The Task Force for Climate Fund Disclosure, set requirements for us to publish, very specific reports with regards to managed portfolios. By the end of July.  I think we've done that, but, over to you, Andrea, for a bit more detail around what we've done and why we've done it.

    Andrea Yung: Indeed. So, the TCFD stands for the Task Force of Climate Related Financial Disclosures. Essentially this aims to enhance reporting of climate related financial information, and it helps investors and advisors to understand how us as organisations think about and assess, climate related risks and opportunities.

    So we've produced a summary document of the potential impact of climate change, looking at both the risks and opportunities on the assets held within each of our models.  These can be found on our website.

    Simon Taylor: So, Andrea, we've had a number of questions from advisors who have clients who really want to get into the nitty gritty of what they're invested in.

    If I'm one of those advisors and I have a client who wants to understand exactly what I'm invested in, where can I get access to that information?

    Andrea Yung: So we've got the resources to be able to do that deep dive into each of our portfolios and we can generate those reports on request. If advisors can reach out to their BDDs and want to request that information, we can provide that deep dive analysis on the underlying holdings, our equity style and positioning, and the risks embedded within the portfolio.

    Simon Taylor: Fabulous. Thank you very much. So to all of those advisors who tuned in, thank you again for taking your time today to listen to our quarterly webinar. As always, if you have got any questions, please do send them into us via your business development director. We look forward to seeing you at the next quarter, uh, for an update on our managed portfolio service.

    Thank you and goodbye.

Q1 2024

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    Simon Taylor: Hello, good day and welcome. My name is Simon Taylor, Head of Strategic Partnerships here at Investec Wealth and Investment. Pleased to welcome you to this quarter's webinar on our MPS portfolios. As usual, we'll be looking at the macroeconomic environment, what's driving asset class returns, and then we'll be diving into the portfolios themselves to see how we're dealing with markets and translating that into the portfolios themselves.

    This quarter again has been eventful in terms of geopolitical risk, inflation has proved to be a little bit more stubborn than expected, interest rates have not come down as quickly as we had hoped. So to look at this, I'm going to hand over to Ronelle Hutchinson, Senior Investment Director, who will be telling us what's going on in markets and what's driving our tactical asset allocation decisions. Ronelle, over to you.

    Ronelle Hutchinson: Thank you, Simon. We have seen a strong rally in risk assets for the start of the year. The MSCI All Country World Index is up over 9 percent, driven by robust returns from developed markets. Both the S&P P 500 and the MSCI Japan are up more than 11 percent, followed by the FTSE 100 which is 4 percent higher.

    Bonds, on the other hand, delivered disappointing returns. On average, bonds returned negative returns over the quarter while commodity prices moved meaningfully higher. One of the major surprises for this year has been the extent to which both the US economy and the global economy has been resilient in the face of higher interest rates. In the chart, we show the City Economic Surprise Index for the US and any level above zero shows a positive economic surprise. And as you can see, since January, this index has rebounded strongly, meaning that the US has consistently surprised on the upside since the beginning of the year.

    While inflation has declined materially since the highs of 2022, the pace of decline has moderated in recent months, specifically core CPI, which is the central bank's main measure of inflation. Both in the US and the inflation is proving sticky, driven by very tight labour markets that is leading to wage growth that is proving relatively healthy and robust. This, combined with higher commodity prices means that upward pressure on inflation will remain in the short term.

    Good news on the economic front has been bad news for investor expectations of rate cuts in the months ahead. The more resilient US economy has forced the market to dial back its interest rate cut expectations this year. And as you can see from the chart, the blue bar, which is the market expectations for interest rate cuts, in February was pricing in more than three 25 basis point cuts. At the end of February that has since been reduced, pointing to the fact that interest rates in the US might actually remain higher for longer, as you can see. On the right side, interest rate expectations for the BOE and Europe has moved positive, however, the recent service inflation print for the UK has forced investors once again to push further out the timing of these interest rate cuts.

    Equity markets have recovered strongly since the lows of 2022 to the point where the market as a whole as represented by the MSCI world forward PE ratio is looking expensive. The chart on the left is showing the forward PE ratio of the MSCI relative to the long-term average and as you can see that is elevated.

    But the chart on the right, when you delve deeper, looking at regional valuations, you can see that this elevated valuation is being largely driven by the US, where the forward PU ratio is well above historic averages, but regions like Japan, are showing value where valuations are much lower versus historic.

    And while Europe appears to be fairly valued, we believe that markets may not be fully factoring in the strong recovery in earnings that we are anticipating. We are mindful of concentration risks in the US at the moment. As you can see from the chart, the top 10 stocks in the S&P 500 at the moment make up 33 percent of the index, so quite concentrated, more concentrated than it has been in a while.

    The market seems to have lofty earnings expectations for these stocks, and there is room for disappointment. Also, we believe that risks remain elevated, there are higher interest rates, geopolitical risks, election risks coming up as well. So as a result, we believe that maintaining resilient and more diversified portfolios in the current environment just seems prudent.

    Bonds have struggled in the first quarter of the year. However, at these higher absolute yields, they still remain attractive, and they paying investors to be patient. In addition, if you look at this chart, which shows that those investors who invested in fixed income early in anticipation of interest rate cuts, actually ended up maximising future returns over the next 12 months.

    In addition, we believe that Bonds once again play their traditional role in the portfolio by providing the stability that is needed, especially in an environment where risks are elevated.

    Simon Taylor: Thank you, Ronelle, for that update on the macroeconomic environment. Three things I took from that were that we continue to see bonds as being good value and a diversifier within portfolios, clearly, portfolio resilience is very important at the moment, as inflation is proving a little bit more stubborn than anticipated, and with that, interest rates aren't coming down as quickly as we would want. And we're very mindful of concentration risk.

    Clearly, the US is proving to be a large part of portfolios. And with that, the exposure to the US, the exposure to the technology sector and the exposure to the Magnificent 7 potentially provides risks that we need to mitigate. So with that, I'm going to hand over to Andrea now to talk about what we're doing within the MPS portfolios to address some of these points.

    Andrea Yung: Thanks, Simon. So across our models, we've maintained our asset allocation weightings over the quarter. We continue to hold a slight underweight position in equities while maintaining our weighting and fixed income. As Ronelle mentioned, although we've seen rate cut expectations pushed out, we're still benefiting from the higher yields on offer.

    Drilling down into our models, we've made a few key changes within these asset classes. So firstly, within fixed income, we've reduced our exposure to high-yield debt. Credit spreads are tight relative to historic levels, meaning we're not really being compensated well for taking on that additional risk for lower quality credit.

    Where we are seeing better value is in the emerging market debt space. So despite the short-term inflationary pressures here to date, the broader downward trend of inflation for emerging markets is positive. And these countries are also at the forefront of monetary easing. And we've already seen Latin American countries starting to cut rates.

    We've recently added the Morgan Stanley Emerging Market Debt Fund to gain exposure here. And the fund also provides a very attractive yield of over 9 percent.

    Secondly, we've adjusted our UK equity holdings. We've switched out of Jupiter UK Special Situations. And this is ahead of the up and coming departure of key team members. We've reinvested into Man GLG Undervalued Assets. So similar to Jupiter, this fund is value-focused, and also provides us with exposure to small and mid cap names, and it complements our wider UK allocation.

    Finally, within emerging market equities, we've increased diversification by switching into the Lazard Emerging Markets Fund. The fund's value focus helps support the existing allocation in emerging market growth. And additionally, its lower ongoing charge has helped to reduce costs. So for those who are interested in the full details of our model changes, we've also created a quarterly document citing our trades and the rationale behind them.

    So it's key to highlight that the majority of our portfolios will be allocated to active funds, with our split between active versus passive shown here. We do utilise passive funds where we can to gain exposure to certain areas of the market at a lower cost. However, as Ronelle mentioned, we're cognizant of the concentration risks within these passive funds. Nearly a third of the US index is made up of just seven stocks. And due to the dominance of the US market within global equities, many of those who are investing passively are putting a large amount of their capital in a very small portion of the market. So this not only increases the concentration risk of the portfolio, but it also leads to missed opportunities that aren't so prevalent in these passive funds.

    And the chart to the left shows a concentration of the Magnificent 7 stocks in the S&P 500, the Global Index, and our MPS models. And what hopefully this highlights is that we still have exposure to these holdings, but with much less concentration risk.

    And the chart to the right shows our equity style. We've got a blended approach within equities, with exposure to both value and growth companies. And it's this diversification that helps us to provide stable returns over the long term. And more resilience during market downturns.

    So looking at our drawdown, this chart highlights how our portfolios have protected on the downside. The shaded area shows the drawdown of our balanced MPS model plotted against the relevant risk sector. And as you can see, our models provided much more protection in periods of market weakness. And this just helps to support performance over the long term.

    So turning to performance, it's been another strong quarter for markets. Equities were a key driver of returns as the US continued to show signs of resilience. And our US funds, both value and growth-focused, performed very well over the quarter. Our overweight position in Japan also boosted returns as we saw increasing optimism supported by mild inflation and wage growth.

    Looking at our performance over the past year, again, it's been positive across the range, and we've outperformed the peer group average. Our portfolios continue to participate well on the upside, despite having an underweight position in equities, and this is due to strong fund selection, thanks to the support of our experienced research team.

    And here is our performance since inception, which dates back to February 2015. It highlights how we've performed throughout the market cycle. We've managed to continuously participate well on the upside while still offering a degree of protection in periods of market weakness. And with that, I'll pass back to Simon.

    Simon Taylor: Andrea, thank you for the update there on the portfolio returns. Again, a very strong quarter for you. So congratulations on delivering some great results over the quarter. I think the three things that I took away from your presentation is we continue to see risk out there in the market and given that, we're very much concentrating on the diversification within portfolios, you highlighted that point around concentration risk.

    I think it was very interesting to see the degree to which we are looking at that at the portfolio level and I noted there as well that you said that we talk about the opportunity for value in emerging market debt.

    So thank you very much for your update there.

    Okay, ladies, we've had a number of questions in from advisors over the quarter. So I'd like to pose these to you. Just a reminder to any advisors out there who would like to ask questions, please do use the bottom of the screen for those questions.

    And the first question relates to the lower-risk portfolios, which we've seen some strong growth in terms of asset flows over the quarter. I think a lot of advisors are now picking up that the returns on these portfolios are beginning to exceed that of cash returns. So, Andrea, quick question for you. Do we expect this to continue? And what would your reason be behind that?

    Andrea Yung: I think over the long term, the benefit of having that investment exposure relative to cash really does pay off. I think there's been a lot of evidence as well that supports that, especially given where we are in the interest rate cycle. Interest on cash is going to come down and people sitting in cash are going to want to then start to invest to get that return. And at that point, I think they will have already missed out on a lot of the market uplift.

    And I think the other thing to take into consideration as well is the factor of inflation and the opportunity cost while sitting in cash. And I think that is a risk that is often a lot of the time ignored.

    Simon Taylor: We've also had a lot of advisors picking up on this point around concentration risk. And I think this is because there's a lot of asset managers out there at the moment talking about concentration risk at the moment, talking about the extent to which the US is an ever growing part of the MSCI world index talking about within that, the extent to which technology as a sector is, is ever increasing. And obviously the magnificent seven within that.

    We hold passive investments, you mentioned, within the MPS portfolio. So I'd just like to ask your thoughts around how we manage that concentration risk within portfolios and look at the underlying stock constituents. That's clearly a question that a lot of advisors are asking us at the moment.

    Andrea Yung: So I think for us, when we are constructing our portfolios and reviewing them, we do the deep dive into the portfolios and see where those asset allocations are, where those portfolios are positioned. So we've got external tools to help us do that deep dive analysis. And what our aim is, is to make sure that we are well diversified, we have a blended approach, and we also carry out scenario testing within our portfolios as well, which means that we can stress test these portfolios to understand how they will perform under certain market conditions. And I think that's key is really having that understanding of what we're, what we're being exposed to.

    Simon Taylor: Ronelle, we have a question here as well, and I think this is one that I've heard a few advisors ask of late, as I've been up and around the UK. We've combined with Rathbones. We are now the largest discretionary fund manager in the UK, with offices all over the UK. How do we think this is going to benefit our underlying investors?

    Ronelle Hutchinson: I think that's a really good question Simon. The benefits of the combination are enhanced resources to manage portfolios, greater experience, a greater depth of expertise, and a stronger investment team that will support the investment. proposition. In addition, the business as a whole will be larger, which means our ability to enhance costs at the underlying fund level will be improved, which should lead to a better cost and investment proposition for our clients.

    Simon Taylor: We have a similar question here, and I'll let you decide between yourselves which you would like to answer, whether it's the opportunities or the risks. But we've got questions here asking what do we see as the biggest risks for portfolio returns and what do we see as the biggest opportunities for portfolio returns? I'll let you decide amongst yourselves, who would like to answer which part.

    Ronelle Hutchinson: Yeah, I can answer to the opportunities because I think beneath the surface of the US index, the global index, there is dispersion across stocks, which means that they are undervalued assets. If you look at the small cap sector, if you look at the value sector, if we see a broadening of this economic recovery across the globe, particularly in the manufacturing sector, this is going to mean that those assets will begin to unlock value.

    Simon Taylor: Andrea, therefore you're picking up the the risk part of that question.

    Andrea Yung: So I think the main risks that we are seeing in the market currently is that rebound in inflation. The market is still pricing in rate cuts this year, and if we see that pick-up in inflation and rate cuts are off the cards, I think this is going to be a huge headwind, not just for the economy, but all also for the stock market.

    And the other thing is the geopolitical tensions that we've seen arise as well. So in the Middle East, China and Taiwan, and I think this is going to have a huge impact on like the energy sector and also the semiconductor industry. For me, I think the biggest risks are always those Black Swan events, the completely unpredictable events, which we don't see coming.

    So for us, the key is to remain diversified, really understand what's under the bonnet of our portfolios and how they can react in certain market conditions. And I think it's that focus that helps us with our drawdown protection.

    Simon Taylor: Thank you both. And then a final question, and this one sort of throws back to the recent budget and the Chancellor announcing the launch of the British ISA. Do we think this will stimulate a resurgence in the UK stock market?

    Ronelle Hutchinson: We are definitely concerned by the exodus of capital from the local market. And as a result, we are encouraged by the recent initiatives in the budget to incentivize investors to invest locally. But in reality, this is not going to be enough. We need higher growth. We need higher investment. We need prospects for higher returns. And it's these fundamental factors that are going to attract investors back into the UK.

    Andrea Yung: I agree. I think theoretically it's positive for UK companies. There's that incentive there for investors. And I think we will see some increased inflows. I mean, will there be a resurgence? I'm a bit more skeptical on the impact that having the additional £5,000 per year will have when you take into consideration the amount of people that do actually max out their full ISAs, and the fact that there'll be an element of restructuring within the normal ISA. And that's going to be more global-focused, taking into consideration the British ISAF.

    Simon Taylor: Thank you, Andrea. Thank you, Ronelle. That's a wrap as far as the questions are concerned. Thank you for your attendance today. We hope that you found the webinar useful. If you have any questions, please do make use of the email address, and that is available to you throughout the quarter, as well as for the end of the webinar.

    Thank you for your attendance and thank you for your support.

 
 

Q4 2023

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    Simon Taylor: Hello, good afternoon and welcome. My name is Simon Taylor and welcome to this month's quarterly update on our Managed Portfolio Service. This has been another eventful quarter from a macroeconomic perspective. We have seen inflation reducing pleasingly, we have seen expectations of interest rates falling, and in the last quarter of the year, we did see risk markets improving their returns.

    I'm pleased to be joined this afternoon by Ronelle Hutchinson, Senior Investment Director at Investec Wealth & Investment, and also Andrea Young, the Portfolio Manager for our Managed Portfolio Service. I'll be turning to them shortly to give you an update on the macroeconomic environment and also on the portfolio and how we've been adjusting it through that environment.

    We'll also be doing a spotlight at the end of the session with questions from advisers, particularly focused on the lower risk portfolios. So firstly, to look at the macroeconomic environment, I'm pleased to hand over to Ronelle Hutchinson.

    Ronelle Hutchinson: Thank you, Simon. The calendar year returns for 2023 contradicted the fears of stagflation and recession risk that prevailed throughout the year. Global equities rallied strongly in the fourth quarter as investors grew more confident of interest rate cuts. The S&P 500 ended the year up close to 20 percent in pounds and the FTSE 100 ended up 8 percent. UK bonds performed positively as the pound strengthened 6 percent relative to the dollar.

    As we revisit and review the predictions at the start of 2023, we can see that was pretty much a lot of hits and misses. There were three key areas of surprises in the year. Energy prices ended the year materially lower versus the higher for longer expectations at the start of the year. Secondly, China disappointed., The recovery from the Covid reopening really struggled throughout the course of the year. The global economy surprised on the upside with global growth outperforming. 2023 was a year defined by interest rate volatility, but despite the wild gyrations of bond yields during the course of the year (taking into account the banking crisis in the first quarter and inflation risks, particularly in the third quarter), the US 10 year yield pretty much ended at the level at which it started.

    Moving to the next chart, mARCet predictions on inflation proved correct. Headline inflation declined materially throughout the course of the year. And although core inflation remains well above central bank target levels, particularly in the UK, households should benefit from higher real disposable income throughout the year, given the lower year on year prices.

    It is likely that in 2023 that the worst of the interest rate hikes are now behind us. The path of the interest rate cuts in 2024 is likely to fuel speculation, but this will hinge largely on the extent to which global economies will prove to be resilient, however. The UK and Europe are looking particularly vulnerable.

    The BOE interestingly enough led the hiking cycle in late December 2021 and may just lead the rate cycle lower. As we move into 2024 from evaluation perspective, US equities appear relatively expensive, and as a result, we remain underweight in US equities across our portfolios. The main driver of this is valuations as you can see in the chart which is showing the equity risk premium over a longer time horizon.

    The equity risk premium is calculated taking the current yield on earnings and subtracting that from the current 10 year yield and 10 year bond yield and as you can see, currently that equity risk premium is close to 1 percent, well below the 4 percent equity risk premium that prevailed throughout history. And as a result, we believe that equities is less attractive relative to bonds and US equity specifically. And as a result, we are favouring fixed income within the portfolios.

    Another reason why we are risk averse is because investor expectations regarding the profits or the outlook for corporate profitability in the US still appear a little too optimistic. And we believe that it's in 2024 that the 2023 interest rate hikes will begin to have an impact on corporate profitability as higher interest costs weigh on earnings throughout this year. Generally, from an equity perspective, we see better opportunities outside of the US. If you look at Japan and Europe, these areas did rally in 2023, but relative to their long term history, the valuations still remain attractive, and as a result, we favored these regions as areas of opportunity within the portfolio.

    And with that, I will hand over to Simon.

    Simon Taylor: Thank you, Ronelle. And now over to Andrea to look at what's been going on within the portfolios themselves.

    Andrea Yung: Thanks, Simon. Across our models, we've continued to reduce our alternative exposure in favour of fixed income. We continue to see better value in fixed income from a risk adjusted perspective, and we've positioned ourselves to take advantage of the potential interest rate cuts as we move further through the rate cycle.

    We've maintained our weighting to equities, keeping a slight underweight position across our models, and that's mainly through an underweight position to the US, remaining defensive given that current economic uncertainty. The majority of our funds remain actively managed, which we believe is crucial as we continue to see growing dispersions between those sectors doing well and those that are lagging.

    In terms of fund changes, we've focused on diversifying exposure to the higher quality credit and enhancing the liquidity profile within the fixed income space. We've implemented this by reducing our exposure to the Royal London Sterling Credit Bond Fund and added the TwentyFour Corporate Bond Fund, which, thanks to the fund manager's in-house expertise, offers great exposure to highly liquid investment grade bonds.

    Within alternatives, we've reduced our hedge fund type strategies through the sale of NB Uncorrelated Strategies which, despite its uncorrelation to equities, we feel no longer offers superior returns to fixed income. We also enhanced our UK exposure by reducing our passive weighting and added the Royal London UK Sustainable Leaders Fund.

    And this fund captures exposure to the large and mid cap companies with a quality growth bias. It just offers a level of diversification outside of the index, which is more large cap value focused. And for those interested in the full details of the model changes, we've also created a quarterly document citing all of our changes and the rationale behind them.

    So the changes that we've made to the portfolio this quarter have also had a positive impact on the cost of our models, as you can see here. This is due to the reduction in our hedge type strategies, which are commonly more expensive. So these cost savings are present across the whole range and will pass on directly to your clients.

    And we believe that this cost reduction will help to support performance over the long term. So looking at recent performance, overall Q4 was a strong quarter for markets. Our portfolios participated well on the upside, despite being slightly more defensively positioned. We saw the strongest returns in our lower risk portfolios, being supported by the recovery in the bond mARCet and also property on the back of interest rate expectations and the potential rate cuts coming through.

    Looking at our performance throughout 2023, again, it's been positive across the range and we've kept pace with the ARC indices. Our models have really benefited from moving to a more global approach. And despite holding an underweight position in the US, which has been the strongest performer this year, we've still participated on the upside thanks to strong fund selection.

    Finally, reviewing our performance since inception, we've outperformed the benchmark across all portfolios. And I hope this highlights the benefit of active management combined with a strong research capability that Investec have to carry out the due diligence in order to select the best funds. And with that, I will pass back to Simon.

    Simon Taylor: Thank you, Andrea. Now we've had a number of questions from advisers, particularly focused on the lower risk portfolio. So we mentioned at the beginning that we would do a spotlight on those lower risk portfolios. And I've got a few questions here.

    So Ronelle, the first question for you here is " We haven't seen strong flows into the lower risk portfolios, particularly the sort of defensive portfolios. Why do you think that is?"

    Ronelle Hutchinson: Investors are still reeling from the disappointing returns in 2022, given the fact that they were heavily invested in fixed income. But with the highest yields in fixed income assets in decades, particularly in the short end of the bond curve, it's important that investors reassess their expectations and reposition to take full advantage of these very attractive yields.

    Simon Taylor: Andrea I think in your presentation, you showed that the portfolio returns in the lower risk portfolios have been particularly attractive in the last quarter of 2023. Has that been driven by expectations of lower interest rate return lower interest rates?

    Andrea Yung: Yes. The rally towards the end of the year was supported by the expectation of interest rate cuts. Notably with the lower risk portfolios with that fixed income exposure and also property exposure which rallied on the back of that. And I think as we move forward, a key question is will central banks cut rates because they can, if we do see lower inflation, or because they have to due to a weaker economy?

    If it's the latter, we may see a bumpier ride for markets, and that's when I think that active style management is crucial and that focus on risk management, especially for those more defensive models.

    Simon Taylor: And Ronelle, I think duration is important within the portfolios in terms of, the duration position that we're holding. Can you just tell advisers how we're positioned as far as duration is concerned?

    Ronelle Hutchinson: In our portfolios, we are currently running a duration of six years. And this is well above obviously a cash fund which would typically run the duration of 90 to 180 days, but it's much lower than a pure passive bond index, which will have a duration of longer than eight and a half years.

    Simon Taylor: And I think I'm right in saying there's a rule of thumb that applies with duration in terms of when you do see a 1 percent reduction in interest rates. Can you just remind advisers of that rule of thumb?

    Andrea Yung: Yeah, so as an example, if a bond has a duration of six years and interest rates fall by one percent, that bond price will increase by approximately six percent.

    So you've got that inverse relationship and the sensitivity to interest rates increases as the duration increases.

    Simon Taylor: Thank you. And can I just ask a further question here? Because I'm sure advisers might be concerned that they've perhaps missed the boat with regards to expectation of interest rate reduction and bond prices. So is it important and i s it the actual rate reduction itself or is it the perception of interest rate reduction that sort of impacts portfolio returns?

    Andrea Yung: I think there's a competition there. There's still a degree of uncertainty out there in markets. We did see that rally towards the end of last year. But what we've seen since the start of 2024 is that markets have come back a bit. And this is on the back of concerns again around inflation. There's some worry around geopolitical issues and whether this will have an impact on supply inflation. And the fact that interest rate cuts may not be as aggressive as we previously thought towards the end of last year. So I definitely don't think investors have missed a boat. And I think what it's highlighted is that potential cost of being sat in cash.

    Simon Taylor: And Andrea, you mentioned many clients and many clients of advisers that were invested in low risk portfolios had a difficult year in 2022 and saw poor returns and in fact, negative returns on those low risk portfolios. So there are clients out there who are invested in lower risk portfolios. And if you were advisor how would you suggest that they should be positioning those clients to gain from interest rate reductions when they do come?

    Andrea Yung: I think there's a few aspects to keep in mind. Firstly, I think it's important to be positioned globally. It's hard to predict how and when these central banks will respond. And having that global opportunity set will allow for active managers to be able to respond and be able to take advantage of the opportunities when they arise.

    I think duration positioning is also key. So as we mentioned, we have increased our duration in the portfolios. But we're still mindful that yields may rise a bit higher in the short term. So it's keeping that kind of duration in the forefront. And I think finally, just the main point to mention is portfolios have that active focus towards credit risk. So default rates are currently low at the moment and credit spreads are tight.

    So investors aren't really being compensated fully for taking on that higher risk credit. So if this changes and we see those spreads widen, I think it's vital to have a good understanding of risks within the fund, especially if we do see that weaker economy coming through.

    Simon Taylor: And then finally, Andrea, you mentioned credit risk and, exposure to different parts of the credit curve, in terms of, of how you look at that within portfolios and how you evaluate the managers that are invested. And perhaps you can give some comment on that as well?

    Andrea Yung: So I think it's definitely critical to look at and this I think is where it's really important to have that active style. Because when you're looking at the credit market, if we do see default rates start to increase and bonds start to default, I think it's really important for fund managers to have that good understanding of those underlying risks that are within the bond.

    Simon Taylor: So thank you, Ronelle. Thank you, Andrea, for your time this afternoon. Thank you for joining us. I think I would summarise today's webinar by saying the macroeconomic environment is looking better as we go into 2024.

    We have seen inflation reduce as expected. We're hoping to see on the back of that reductions in interest rates. And as Ronelle and Andrea mentioned, that should benefit portfolios, particularly the sort of fixed income holdings within those portfolios. I think it's fair to say that advisers who do have clients invested in lower risk portfolios, should be thinking about how those positions, how those portfolios are positioned for this new environment that we're expecting and hopefully the information we've given today will help for that.

    We are producing a guide to help advisers and your business development directors will be sharing that with you over the coming weeks and months. All it leaves for me to do now is to thank you for your time and we look forward to seeing you at the next quarterly webinar.

Q3 2023

Resources
  • Expand to read a transcript of the video

    Hello, good day and welcome. My name is Simon Taylor, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Investec Wealth and Investment. And it's my pleasure to be your host and to welcome you to this quarter's market update and review of the Manage Portfolio Service.

    I'm joined today by Ronelle Hutchinson, Senior Investment Director from our Investment and Research Office, and Andrea Yung, the Investment Director focused on our Managed Portfolio Service. Good day to you both.

    For the next 30 minutes, we will consider investment markets, looking back over a very eventful quarter, which saw interest rates and inflation remaining high and markets continuing to be volatile. We will also look ahead to 2024 and beyond, considering what the investment outlook means for the MPS Portfolios, your clients and your firms.

    Now, before I start, I'd like to draw your attention to some exciting corporate news. Our combination with Rathbones, the leading provider of individual wealth management and asset management services to individual clients, charities, trustees and professional partners completed on the 21st of September. Our combined business now manages in excess of £100 billion of assets on behalf of clients and partners. And together we now have over 675 investment managers working out of 23 offices throughout the UK and Channel Islands.

    In the coming months and weeks ahead, we will bring you more information on how this amazing combination is benefiting you and your clients. In the meantime, rest assured that your clients and your business are partnering with the largest discretionary fund manager in the UK and one which can truly boast a local presence. If you'd like to hear more about this, please do reach out to your local Business Development Manager, or drop me a line after this video.

    Today's quarterly update is accompanied by a very useful guide for advisers to use with clients on the value of staying invested. And this covers why investment returns have been difficult to come by of late, why time in the market does matters when it comes to long term investing, why it's important to stay invested, and where we see value and opportunities. If you'd like a copy of this guide, please do contact your local Business Development Manager or indeed, drop me a line.

    The third quarter has been a challenging backdrop for global equities. Interest rates have remained high, bond yields have remained elevated and global growth has struggled as a result. To talk more about this, I'm delighted to invite Ronelle Hutchinson, Senior Investment Director, to the microphone.

    Thanks Simon. So, looking to the global macro environment, if we just look at the performance of asset class returns in the third quarter, as SImon pointed out, you know, the strong start to risk assets in the first half of 2023 faltered in the third quarter as global equities delivered negative returns.

    If you look at the S&P 500, it delivered negative returns in dollars, but in pounds, managed to be up 0.8% as the pound weakened against the dollar. Looking at UK equities, they were up 2.4%, delivering out-performance relative to US equities. And generally global bonds struggled as the rise in yields negatively impacted the bond market. A notable outperformer was commodities, with the gain in oil prices as a result of production cuts in Saudi Arabia and Russia.

    When you look at the year-to-date performance of asset class returns, it's been a positive screen across the board. As you can see, global equities have surprised on the upside, largely as a result of the resilience we've seen in the global economy.

    If you look at the S&P 500, it is up 11%, driven by that strong rebound in the technology sector as a result of ChatGPT and generative AI. Moving to Europe, it was up 7% and the UK has delivered a positive return of 5%. Generally, when you look at bonds over the period, they have struggled. But there have been areas of positivity, specifically in the UK bond market. But really marginal gains.

    If you look across to currencies, the pound is stronger on a year-to-date basis, up 1.5%, despite the weakness that we experienced in the third quarter. Just looking at what really drove risk assets over the quarter, as Simon shows here, once again you had volatility in the interest rate environment, largely as a result of the strong labour market data, as well as higher oil prices, that kept central banks hawkish over the period.

    And as a result, investors across the board had to reprice the interest rate outlook for the remainder of the year, forcing them to reprice interest rates higher. And this dented sentiment across the board.

    Just moving to the next slide, what we can see is that despite the economic resilience we've seen this year, the continued much higher for interest rates is likely to take its toll on the global economy. And as you can see, the recent update from the IMF has pointed to downgrades for economic growth.  For 2024, they've downgraded it by 0.1% to 2.9% and that's well below the long-term historical average.

    So we do feel that these higher rate are likely to take its toll and we're really seeing it already in the Global Purchasing Manager Index, which has now deteriorated and is showing, signs of slowing in the economic momentum and no more is this evident than in the next slide, which shows the UK Purchasing Manager's Index for both the manufacturing and service sectors. And as you can see, while the service sector has been quite robust for the large part of 2022 and the early part of 2023, the reality is that the cost-of-living crisis is now denting the post-Covid resilience that we've seen in the service sector. And as a result, the weakness of the UK economy is now evident and recession risks remain. So it's still definitely a risk there.

    If we just move to the next slide, the combination of a weaker economy and falling inflation has given the Bank of England reason to pause interest rates, which they have just done at the latest Central Bank meeting. They have opted to pause the hiking cycle at these current levels. And if you look at the chart on the right, which is showing pricing in these changes in interest rate expectations, if you look at the orange line at the very top, that was the July expectation of interest rates. Post the BOE pause in September, you've seen interest rate expectations decline by the second orange line at the bottom there. And clearly what it means is that bad news on the economic front is turning out to be good news for the interest rate outlook in the months ahead.

    If we just move to the next slide, the reality now is that the sharp rise in interest rates has actually been quite positive for savers and current investors at the moment, because you're getting very attractive yields on cash at the moment. And this is well beyond the subpar returns we've seen over the last decade. So cash and fixed income assets are now offering very attractive alternatives to equities, and so investors are now losing that incentive to own equities - not just in the US, but the UK as well as the rest of the world - because of this rise in interest rates and the attractiveness of fixed income.

    Just turning to the next slide, it then leads us to reflect our current assets allocation view, which is to remain underweight equities and US equities, specifically. If you look at the chart on your left, which is showing the valuation levels of US equities at the moment currently sitting at 18 times PE. Well above the long-term average of the 15 times average.

    While in the short term, we don't know what the outlook for equities is going to be longer term, we know that from these elevated levels of valuation in US equities markets, combined with tighter financial conditions and already a downward trend in corporate profitability in the US, definitely we see that over the long term, the outlook for US equities is less positive. And hence, we are underweight at this particular stage.

    But there is some good news. As I alluded to earlier on, fixed income assets, are becoming more and more attractive. And if you look at the next slide, what you can see on the chart on your left is the range in the grey bar there, the blue shaded range, is showing the range of yields across maturities over the last 15 years, and as you can see that blue line at the very top shows the current yields of fixed income assets across maturities.

    And as you can see, they are showing the most attractive yields over the last 15 years. And then if you move to the chart on your right, this is a very interesting chart. It's showing the impact of a 1% rise or fall in interest rates and the impact that this will have on fixed income assets. And as you can see, there is a positive skew across all maturities.  A rise or fall in interest rates is actually showing that there's a positive skew, and there’s more upside to be gained from fixed interest, irrespective of where interest rates move from here.

    Obviously, the longer dated, like the 30 year US Treasury will be negatively impacted. But what we're seeing is an asymmetric return profile for fixed income. And as a result, we've moved more positive on the asset class, from an asset allocation perspective. And with that, I'm going to hand back to Simon.

    Thank you Ronelle for that update on the global macro picture. And I think the sort of main points that I took away from that were that, with this sort of weaker economic picture on growth and falling inflation, we think we're close to the peak on interest rates and there's clearly, at current yields, with the risk return skewed in favour of fixed income, that's clearly a positive for those holding fixed income assets. And that's one of the things that we continue to look at quite strongly.

    And I think you also mentioned there that when interest rates do moderate, equity portfolios should rise as the equity discount rate improves. So some positive news on that point. Now, let's look at the MPS Portfolios themselves in a little bit more detail. I think this has been a busy quarter for the MPS Portfolio management team, as they look to reposition portfolios for the future. So to talk through the managed portfolios that we have, and the changes that we've made over the quarter, I'm delighted to invite Andrea Yung to the microphone.

    Andrea is the Investment Director who's focused on our MPS range. And as a quick reminder, we have six portfolios across the risk return spectrum. Those portfolios are continually being rebalanced to ensure that they stay within their risk return pathways. And that rebalancing process in itself has the advantage of making sure that we're continually cashing in on gains and capitalising on valuation opportunities with underperforming assets. Andrea, I see that we have made some changes to the portfolio this quarter, which have had a positive impact on total expense ratios and TAAS (tactical asset allocation) changes. Perhaps you could talk the audience through these?  Andrea over to you.

    Thank you Simon. So I'll cover the main changes that we've made to the models since our last update, why I think we're well positioned given the current outlook, and then I'll reflect on recent performance.

    So, firstly, here's a current breakdown of our asset allocation across all models. The main key points to highlight, and what I'll go into in a bit more detail on the following slides, is that we've slightly dialled down our alternative exposure and added to fixed income. And we've also diversified our equity exposure by reducing that UK home bias and increasing overseas exposure.

    So here you can see how the asset allocations have changed for each strategy in our core range over the quarter. Firstly, the reason why we've reduced our alternative exposure and increased fixed income, is due to the value that we're finding in that fixed income asset space, especially in the government bond space.

    Real yields over the quarter have risen. And as we're seeing as we're seeing, that peak US interest rates being pushed out further and that shallower decline being priced in. We're seeing this as an opportunity to benefit from the higher yields that bonds are offering.

    Now we continue to believe that there will be a slowdown in global growth, as Ronelle mentioned, and therefore the latest increase in yield we feel just provides us with that opportune time to also slightly increase our duration within fixed income to a more neutral stance.

    So, using the balance model as an example, this chart here shows how our asset allocation has changed over the quarter and how we're currently positioned. What this highlights is how we've increased our overseas equity exposure and adopted a more global approach. And our UK equity exposure, as a percentage of the overall portfolio, has reduced from 25.8% down to 12%, while our overseas exposure has increased from 31.8% to 45.5%.

    So looking at how this overseas allocation has changed, what you can see, is that we've increased our exposure across the regions, Europe, US, the Far East and emerging markets and general global Funds. And the reason why we've done this just stems from broadening our opportunity set, which we expect will lead to stronger returns over the long term.

    So the UK market is dominated by sectors such as oil and gas, mining and banks, and these are typically capital intensive and cyclical. So these types of sectors benefit from an interest rate rising environment when commodity prices are rising. However, looking ahead, the UK could begin to lag once interest rates expectations soften and the global market just opens up exposure to sectors that aren't available in the UK to global leaders with areas such as technology, manufacturing and healthcare. And I think this chart highlights it well.

    In equities, no country has a monopoly on industry leaders. So thanks to the size of its capital market, the US has many, particularly in technology and Europe and the UK compete in pharmaceuticals, staples and industrials. Emerging markets are increasingly producing future leaders as well. These areas are less thoroughly analysed, less efficient, and therefore offer a greater opportunity for upper generation. And by keeping our investable universe as wide as possible, we just give ourselves the best opportunity to generate superior returns and also to diversify that risk.

    So just having a look at the model changes in a bit more detail, here are the changes that we've made. So firstly, looking at fixed interest, we've increased our waiting in sovereign debt through the L&G All Stock Guilt Index, and we feel the risk adjusted return characteristics are looking favourable. As yields have increased, the return that you can get on the guilt is more attractive, and you've still got that potential for capital uplift as we approach the end of the hiking cycle.

    We've also increased opposition in the Royal London Sterling Credit Bond Fund by selling our position in the Fidelity Sustainable Money Builder. These funds both fall under the same UK investment grade sector and are quite similar in terms of structure and exposure. We've made this decision as we just feel that Royal London team have that edge at selecting bonds, especially in the less liquid area that offer a higher return. And we just believe that Royal London are market leaders within the space.

    Now within equities, we've reduced a number of our UK holdings in order to gain exposure overseas, maintaining only our most favoured names.

    So in the US, what you'll find is that we've dialled back our growth tilt and added exposure to more value focused names, just helping us to provide a more diversified exposure within the US, rather than adding concentration to those large cap growth stocks, which are on high valuations.

    The Beutel Goodman Value Fund is a good example of this. We feel that the fund managers have still demonstrated strong performance relative to the US market, despite not owning any of the large cap names, which is just evidence of their stock picking capability. And although our outlook on the market still remains cautious, we believe it pays to have this type of active management during this point in the cycle, as when we do see increased volatility, the fund manager will be able to be more flexible and responses and responsive to market inefficiencies and risk pricings compared to those passive funds.

    We've also adjusted our Japanese exposure by selling Bailey Gifford Japan, which is more growth focused to M&G Japan, which has a more blended approach with a bit of a slight value tilt. And we believe this fund is a compelling core value proposition for allocating to Japan and is best in class.

    We've also increased our weighting to Hermes Emerging Markets Equity Fund. And while we're aware of the impacts that the stronger dollar has had and the risks surrounding China, we see emerging markets as a longer-term beneficiary of an eventual weaker dollar and recovery.

    So just having a look at our fees, over the quarter, we've reduced both our underlying OCF and transactional fees, and this is mainly down to a few reasons. Firstly, gaining access to cheaper share classes has helped and we're continually working on this so we can get the best value for money.

    Secondly, we've increased our exposure to passives in the UK sovereign space, as we feel a passive gilt product provides the same exposure and similar performance for a much lower cost relative to other active gilt funds. And a reduction in alternatives has helped to reduce transactional charges, which are inherently higher than the other asset classes due to their hedge type structures in place.

    So this slide here just helps to visualise the cost reduction for each strategy, which hopefully is some positive news for your clients. And we understand the importance of total costs for clients, and we remain committed to reducing costs where we can without impacting returns.

    So the next slide here just shows the active versus passive split for each of our strategies. The passive weighting has increased mainly as a result of that fixed income guilt exposure that I mentioned. However, we still remain very much active, especially at this point in the market. If we do see market stress, our active funds can take advantage of these missed pricing opportunities. So just having a look at how our strategies have actually performed, this slide, shows how we performed over the quarter.

    And we have seen some slightly positive returns across our models. The dark blue line represents our strategies, and this is plotted against the comparable ARC indices for each of the models. And as you can see during this time, we've outperformed across most strategies, with the exception of defensive. And what's driven our performance this quarter has been the UK names.

    So thanks to energy and the basic material sector, which was supported by sterling weakness and a recovery in oil price, we've also seen domestic sectors improving on the back of positive consumer sentiment for the quarter. Also, fixed income showed signs of resilience within the corporate bond market.

    And our exposure to the Royal London Sterling Credit performed quite well. We've also seen a recovery in alternatives, most notably the JP Morgan Global Macro Opportunities Fund. This bounced back due to its hedge against the US tech sector and European equities, which were negative over the quarter.

    It has been property which has detracted from performance. And that's because of the global exposure in the Schroeder Global Cities Fund, which has generated negative returns. And that's been weighed down mainly by the US real estate section. So where we have seen slight underperformance relative to ARC has been in our defensive strategy, and this is mainly due to the high rating in property relative to that equity position.

    Now just looking year to date, we've seen mixed performance across our strategies, with defensive cautious and income lagging their respective ARC indices, while cautious plus balance and growth have either kept in line or outperformed.

    Now, the reason why our lower risk strategies have failed to keep pace with ARC is just due to our positioning on property and alternatives, which have struggled in the current economic environment. However, our outlook still remains cautious for global equities, and if we do experience periods of market weakness, it's these types of strategies which should help support portfolios.

    Looking within equities, we've been hurt by the lack of exposure overseas, most notably in the US and the magnificent seven, which have been a key driver of global equity returns year to date. Although we try to minimise sell backs when we look at value versus growth, our portfolios have historically had a bit of a growth tilt during the low interest rate environment, and these companies will usually create returns above the cost of capital. And this has served us well in recent years. However, as we've seen one of the most aggressive tightening cycles in history over the last 12 months, this has put downward pressure on the valuations of these types of companies.

    So this slide just details the timings of our tactical asset allocation decisions, as directed by our research team throughout 2021 and 2022, which we've reflected in our models. As evidenced, we have reduced risk through a reduction in equities during tough periods, and a lot of this reduction has been through the growth style equity funds. However, in hindsight, we could, and we should have been a bit more aggressive in this approach.

    Now, taking a longer-term view and looking at performance since inception, I'm pleased to say that we've still outperformed across all portfolios. We believe we can drive returns further over the long time over the long term, by adopting a more global approach and broadening that opportunity set.

    We also remain competent in our ability to protect portfolios on the downside and during market weakness. And with the support of our research capability, we're able to select the best ones in class. So with that, I will pass back to Simon.

    Excellent. Thank you Andrea. Thank you for that very comprehensive overview of what looks to be a very busy quarter for the MPS team. The three takeaways I took away from that were that we've clearly reduced alternatives in favour of fixed income over the quarter, we've adapted more of a global approach for equities, and I think, importantly for advisers and their clients, we have reduced the cost of portfolios throughout the quarter as well. So it's great to see that we are well positioned for the for the future.

    We've got a couple of slides here that we put into the pack just to help advisers with persuading clients of the merits of continuing to be invested in the market.

    But as I mentioned right at the very beginning, we've got a very handy guide, which we have just published for you. And I would advocate that you reach out to your local Business Development Manager and get a copy of that, for any conversations that you need to have with clients around continuing to remain invested in in these challenging times.

    With that, I think we move to Q&A.

    I think the first one I can see here is "You alluded to the magnificent seven". So for those advisors and investors out there that don't know who the magnificent seven are, or what the magnificent seven are, I thought it was a film, a Western film in fact!  Perhaps you can just enlighten us as to who the magnificent seven are?

    Yes, so when I refer to when we refer to the 'magnificent seven', these are the companies the likes of Amazon, Apple, NVIDIA and Meta. These are growth stocks within the US, which have done very well year to date. So our exposure to these has been through the L&G US index, as these actually make up such a large position of the benchmark.

    Brilliant. OK, so we have had exposure to those through the portfolios. Excellent. Lovely. Excellent. Wonderful.

    And Ronelle, I think there's a question for you here as well – "We clearly are predominantly still active within those portfolios. Obviously, markets are quite challenging at the moment in terms of the economic backdrop. Perhaps you could just give some comments and thoughts in terms of the importance of active management?"

    Thanks Simon. I think the current volatile environment suits definitely an active manager. Generally, what you find in broad systematic environments of geopolitical risk, rising economic uncertainty and deteriorating economic growth, headline indices across the board decline.

    Where we do have the benefit in terms of active managers, managers that are looking at companies with idiosyncratic risk factors, and drivers whose returns can often decouple from the economic environment. So being active in this environment makes sense where we will normally see quite a dispersion in returns and that really is the playing ground for active management.

    Thank you Ronelle. And one final question here, I think, relating to where the most assets are going into the 2plan managed portfolios at the moment. I think that's moderately cautious.

    But Andrea, probably you're better placed to answer that one. So we're seeing a lot of the traction and demand within the moderately cautious portfolio, which has done very well for us. And also within that cautious portfolio as well. That's where we're seeing a lot of the inflows coming in.

    Excellent, thank you. Well, there's no more questions from the audience. If any advisor out there watching do have further questions for us, please do, write them down and post them into us, and we'll be happy to provide answers to that.

    I think just before we finish off just a a few other things from the quarter.

    One of the latest platform studies has come in from Platform Forum, which continues to show that platform assets, into the managed portfolio service are growing. Very interesting that over the last 12 months, assets into platforms generally across the industry have actually declined from something like £680 billion under management to, something like £640 billion under management. So quite a significant fall. Largely, I suspect, due to asset prices and maybe, clients taking more out of portfolios on platforms than putting into portfolios on platforms.

    But one of the things that has stood up quite remarkably well over the quarter is the amount of money going in to managed portfolio strategies. At the at the beginning of last year, it was something like 12% of total assets on platforms. So around about £80 billion. It's now over 16%, over £100 billion.

    The latest report from Cerulli Associates, the respected independent research firm, predicts the number of financial advisors outsourcing investment decisions to discretionary fund managers will continue to increase as the regulator increases its focus on consumer protection.

    So for the any of those of you at the moment who haven't yet adopted the managed portfolio strategies, there’s plenty of material coming to you from our good selves in the near future.

    I also mentioned in terms of investing in current markets, a very useful guide that's been produced by John Wynn Evans from our Investment Research Office about helping customers to stay committed and invested in current markets.

    A very worthwhile read. Very supportive of long-term investing.

    And again, something, that you might find useful and your clients might find useful. So please do reach out to us.

    That's all for us for now.

    Thank you for your time, thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you again at the next quarter.

  • Expand to read a summary transcript

    Over the quarter we have slightly dialled down our Alternative exposure and added to Fixed Income. Real yields over the quarter have risen and we are seeing this as an opportunity to benefit from the higher yields that bonds are offering.

    We have also diversified our equity exposure by reducing our UK home bias and increasing overseas exposure. By keeping our investable universe as wide as possible, we give ourselves the best opportunity to generate superior returns, and to diversify risk.

    Looking at fund changes over the quarter, we have increased our weighting in sovereign debt, through L&G All Stocks Gilt Index. We feel the risk-adjusted return characteristics are looking favourable.

    Within Equities, we have reduced our UK holdings to gain exposure overseas. In the US, we have dialled back our growth tilt and added exposure to value-focused funds. The Beutel Goodman US Value Fund is a good example of this. This is a value-focused fund with a quality overlay. The fund is not so geared towards the cyclicity of markets and should help to provide resilience during market weakness.

    In Japan, we have sold Baillie Gifford Japanese, which is more growth focused, and increased our weighting to M&G Japan which has a more blended approach.

    We have also increased our weighting to Hermes Emerging Markets Equity Fund. Whilst we are aware of the impacts that the stronger dollar has had, and the risks surrounding China, we see Emerging Markets as a longer-term beneficiary of an eventual weaker dollar and recovery.

    Over the quarter we have reduced both our Underlying OCF and transactional fees across all models. We have done this by gaining access to cheaper share classes and by increasing our exposure to passives funds in the UK sovereign space. Our reduction in Alternatives has helped to reduce transaction charges.

    Our portfolios remain active, with around 70% invested in active funds across each of our models. We believe this is important, especially as this point in the market cycle, where we are seeing a divergence of returns across different companies and sectors.

    Looking at performance over the quarter, we have outperformed across most of our strategies, with the exception of Defensive.

    What has driven our performance this quarter has been our UK names, thanks to the energy and basic materials sector which were supported by sterling weakness against the dollar and a recovery in oil prices.

    Fixed income showed signs of resilience with corporate bond markets outperforming. We also saw a recovery in Alternatives, most notably JPM Global Macro Opportunities fund.

    Taking a longer-term view and looking at performance since inception, we have still outperformed across all portfolios. We believe we can drive returns further over the long term by adopting a more global approach and broadening our opportunity set. 

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Investec Wealth & Investment (UK) is a trading name of Investec Wealth & Investment Limited which is a subsidiary of Rathbones Group Plc. Investec Wealth & Investment Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and is registered in England. Registered No. 2122340. Registered Office: 30 Gresham Street. London. EC2V 7QN.