Foord Equity Fund Takes The Performance Spotlight

The Foord unit trust funds continue to perform well relative to their benchmarks and within their sectors.

The Foord Equity Fund specifically has performed extremely well. The fund delivered double-digit alpha by outperforming the benchmark FTSE/JSE All Share Index by a massive 12.6% after fees over the year to April 2012. The latest month-end Morningstar® rankings place the fund 1st over one-, two- and three-year periods (out of 86, 81 and 77 funds respectively). The fund is ranked 2nd of 59 and 44 funds over the last five- and seven-year periods. The fund’s 10-year track record becomes available on 31 August 2012 and we expect the fund to place 1st in its peer group over the decade – a remarkable achievement.

The fund achieved these excellent long and short-term returns not as a result of taking any big “bets” but by having a balanced weighting to most industries, while taking into account Foord’s economic outlook. The fund benefited from a lower allocation to the resource sector, which underperformed the overall market by 20% over the last 12 months. Platinum shares in particular had a tough year. SA consumer shares, however, performed especially well. The sector benefited from improving economic conditions, rising real incomes and additional employment creation (with continued social support from government). Bank shares also performed well on the back of improved global sentiment around banking shares and improved earnings of SA banks as bad debt provisions continued to reverse. Non-resource rand hedges contributed positively to total returns over the last 12 months.

Please refer to the fact sheets carried on this website for more information on fund composition and returns.