Speaker 0:
Hello and welcome to the fund fit session. I'm joined today by James Murray, portfolio manager on the Old Mutual Global Equity Fund. Welcome, James.

Speaker 1:
Thanks so much. Chloe. Pleasure to be here.

Speaker 0:
So, James, the Global Equity Fund, What type of clients is this fund typically appropriate for? And what role does it play in a client's portfolio?

Speaker 1:
Yes, sure. So the old mutual Global Equity fund gives you broad based exposure to global equities, global developed market equities. Um, every day the portfolio mentioned team analysed around 6000 stocks. Um, in the investable universe, spanning all sectors from fast paced cyclical technology all the way through to traditional dependable utilities. Um, as long as they're listed on one of 23 developed market

Speaker 1:
countries, you consider them for inclusion into the portfolio, generating an active global equity portfolio. So in terms of appropriateness for the for the client base, we have a very broad range of different clients. Um, some, which are individuals saving for their own personal futures, Others, which are large institutions, um, managing multigenerational endowment funds, the common thread being, um, the desire to get exposure to equity markets outside of South Africa.

Speaker 0:
James. So what do advisers or clients need to be aware of when considering an allocation to this fund?

Speaker 1:
Yes, sure. So we have a broad asset universe of around 6000 equity equities. Um, around the world, Um, that means you really have to have a structured investment process, making sure that we can meticulously evaluate all of the opportunities that are on offer. To do this, we follow a strict, um, systematic rule based investment process, examining over 40 million data points every single day to take a deliberately dispassionate, data driven approach to investing.

Speaker 1:
This has a number of advantages over more manual opinion based investment processes. First of all, it enables us to take a large of investments and consider them all in a lot of detail. But possibly more importantly, it also prevents us from falling from investment. Behavioural biases, things like overconfidence and overreaction, and avoiding such behavioural biases offers a persistent and pervasive source of outperforms, helping us to generate an attractive return profile for a price.

Speaker 0:
OK, James. So what then sets this fund apart from other global equity funds?

Speaker 1:
Sure. So the the fund, as it is now, is exceptionally diversified. we have about 300 stocks, um, within the portfolio, um, covering a range of different aspects sectors, countries, geographies. We do not focus on narrow trenches of the market, and we do not focus on concentrated

Speaker 1:
positions and individual names. Um, And due to this kind of diversified approach, we're able to dynamically tilt towards different parts of the market, moving to the most attractive areas at any given point in time, aiming to maximise our exposure to proprietary measures of equity market mispricing.

Speaker 1:
So, due to this differentiated approach to investing, um, the active returns to the fund are typically not correlated to other equity market products. Um, and that in combination with also being very diversified, means that it's a really nice, attractive core holding for for for fund selectors, from which they normally combine more specialist, um, individual funds, too. As well.

Speaker 0:
James, thank you very much for taking us through your fund first. We appreciate your time. Thanks

Speaker 1:
very much. Appreciate it.