BL American Smaller Companies
Equity funds
Data as of 19/08/2019
Risk level
| Low |  | High |
Recommended investment horizon : > 10 years Performance
Average annual performance since launch 12,36 %
Performance as at 19/08/2019
Composition
| Asset breakdown |
| Equities | 96,36 % |
| Cash | 3,64 % |
| Breakdown by currency |
| USD | 97,19 % |
| CAD | 2,58 % |
| EUR | 0,23 % |
| Main positions |
| Resmed Inc | 3,96 % |
| Lamb Weston Holdings Inc | 3,03 % |
| Check Point Software Technologies Ltd | 2,80 % |
| Church + Dwight Co Inc | 2,79 % |
| Clorox Co | 2,72 % |
Strategy
Investment objective and policy
BL-American Smaller Companies invests up to 80% of its assets in shares of American companies with a market capitalization below 20 billion USD. Selected companies have a well-defined business model with a clear market strategy. The fund invests in companies with a strong competitive advantage, showing a sustainable superior return profile and generating high and consistent levels of free-cash flow. In combination with a solid financial situation. Investment decisions are based on strict valuation and quality criteria.
Management report - 2d Quarter 2019
In June, the central banks came to the rescue. Confronted by weaker economic data, risks to the trade outlook and still low inflation, the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank indicated that the cavalry is coming in the form of further monetary stimulus. Risk assets, such as equities and credit, rallied along with traditional safe haven assets, such as developed market government bonds, gold and the yen. Reversing the weakness in risk assets in May, June's strong performance has made it a good second quarter and certainly a good start to the year, almost irrespective of what you were invested in. In this environment the BL-American Smaller Companies Fund (retail share class capitalization net of fees in USD) underperformed its Benchmark, the MSCI US Small + Mid Cap NR USD Index, by 0.02%. In absolute terms, the fund showed a positive performance of 4.17%. During the second quarter, we initiated a position in ANSYS. The company is the leading provider of physics-based simulation software, serving more than 45 000 customers worldwide. As products become more complex along with increasing demands to improve time-to-market and quality and reduce costs, simulation is becoming an increasingly important tool to help companies achieve these objectives. Despite offering the broadest portfolio of simulation software across physics disciplines (e.g., structures, fluids, electromagnetics, optical, etc.) and having the leading market share amongst simulation competitors, we believe ANSYS remains underpenetrated and that there are plenty of opportunities to both add new logos and expand simulation usage within its installed base. Further, newer products have the potential to expand ANSYS beyond its core simulation market over time. Even with potential signs of increasing macro headwinds in certain geographies and verticals that ANSYS is exposed to, we believe ANSYS remains well positioned given the increasingly strategic role simulation plays within product development. Around 75% of the company's revenue is recurring and the high switching costs for businesses in term of time and money leads to sticky client relationships, exemplified by renewal rates around 95%. The company reinvests almost 20% percent of their revenues each year into research to continually refine and improve the software and therefore reinforcing their competitive advantage. The top 5 contributors in the quarter were Resmed, Manhattan Associates, Idexx Laboratories, Aspen Technology and CDW. The top 5 detractors were Sally Beauty, Lamb Weston, Waters, Check Point Software and A.O. Smith.
General information
| Net Asset Value |
| Calculated | Every business day |
| NAV class B capitalisation shares (19/08/2019) | 156,55 USD |
| CODES | Internal capitalisation code : 29339088
ISIN capitalisation code : LU1305478775
WKN capitalisation code : A1421A
|
| Net assets (million) | 263,18 USD |
| Launch date | 13/11/2015 |
