Only a quarter of the most active global funds outperform Europe and Wall Street

Actively managed international stock funds are apparently offering good performance data, but are failing to beat the market. Only 23% of the 393 funds of the global League of the active management of elEconomista ?? with performance data as of October 11, according to Morningstar, of the 400 products that make up the ranking ?? outperforms the Stoxx 600 and the S&P 500. This means that only 93 investment vehicles with a greater decorrelation of their benchmark index achieve a better return data of 17.17% than the European stock index and 19, 04% that accumulates the main selective of the North American market.

It does not seem like a very high percentage, considering that the most cyclical companies have enjoyed the favor of investors since the end of last year, when the vaccines against Covid 19 appeared and the end of the restrictions was glimpsed. And it shows that it is not so easy for active managers, many with a value bias, to achieve an excellent result against the evolution of the stock markets.

In fact, the average revaluation of the Global League in 2021 is 16.28%, according to Morningstar, just 69 basis points more than the performance of the MSCI World Index. Compared to the rest of international stock funds, neither the products of this League of elEconomista achieve better results, since global equity funds with the capacity to invest in any type of company by size achieve 17.15%, while those with the possibility of investing indistinctly in growth or value companies, they achieve 16.55%.

The most outstanding

Yes, there are investment vehicles that clearly stand out above their competitors in the Global League: 25 funds exceed 25% profitability in the year, with some of them offering double. It is the case of Hamco Global Value Fund, advised by John Tidd for Andbank, which earns 50%, followed by Azvalor’s fund of managers, Azvalor Managers, coordinated by Javier Sáenz de Cenzano, who achieved 44.33%, and Azvalor International, managed by Álvaro Guzmán and Fernando Bernad, with 43.38%.

They are not the only products that the founders of this investment boutique have managed to place among the most profitable among the most active funds on the international stock market, since it appears in fourth place Azvalor Lux Sicav Azvalor International, with 38.68%, and in seventh and eighth position they are respectively Azvalor Value Selection Sicav, with 35.22%, and Azvalor Bluechips, with 33.92% in the year.

Among the top ten there is also another Spanish product, Cobas International, managed by Francisco García Paramés, which is in fourth position with a 38.11% profitability. And this boutique has also located Cobas Grandes Compañías and Cobas Large Cap in the top 20.

Of other well-known Spanish value managers, only Iván Martín, president and chief investment officer of Magallanes Value Investors, has been able to place Magallanes European Equitand in an outstanding position, in sixteenth place, with 26.76%. A percentage that contrasts with the 15.23% obtained by Bestinver Internacional, under the responsibility of Tomás Pintó, which is ranked 231.

The Magallanes and Bestinver funds, although they have a strategy more focused on European companies, have been included in elEconomista’s Global League due to their recognition among investors.

Metavalue, the worst

Despite the good profitability results of Azvalor and Cobas, the rest of the Spanish funds that are included in the Global League (see graph) have had very different luck. In the first quartile, including the products already mentioned, there are 15 products, while in the second quartile there are only five funds.

The rest are in the second half of the classification, with returns ranging from 15.95% of Caja Ingenieros Global ISR A, which thus occupies position 203 in the Global League, until the loss of almost 20% that accumulates Metavalor International, which is in fact the worst performing fund of the entire group of the most active global brokerage funds. And precisely these funds that are in the third and fourth quartiles offer a return data below the average of the classification.

Santander GO Global Eq ESG, which achieves a return of almost 24%, benefits from the Robeco team’s experience in this asset class as this fund belongs to its GO range of advised products from the bank.

In the long term they do not rent either

Although the results achieved this year by global equity funds are being acceptable, they are not so much when analyzed over ten years. According to the latest Spiva report, prepared by S&P Global, in the long term 98% of the products in this category denominated in euros have failed to beat their benchmark, not even taking into account a risk-adjusted basis.

In the short term, the results are equally bleak, since 73% of the funds do not exceed their index in the year, a percentage that in three years reaches 83%. The reports of this consultancy, like others, have acquired some relevance in recent years thanks to the boom experienced by passive management, thanks to its lower commissions. And in fact, it is exactly the same with other categories of funds. According to the latest Spiva report, 85% of European equity funds and 95% of North American equity funds have also been outperformed by their indices.