Austria's Spängler IQAM introduces new strategy to its EM and Pacific funds
Austrian asset manager Spängler IQAM Invest is changing the investment strategy in two of its funds in a bid to improve the risk profile of these products.
Austrian asset manager Spängler IQAM Invest is changing the investment strategy in two of its funds in a bid to improve the risk profile of these products.
From now on Spängler Quality Growth Pacific und Spängler Equity Emerging Markets funds will follow a so-called value & sentiment strategy.
The new strategy involves a combination of value and market sentiment factors to achieve an optimum diversified mix in the portfolio.
The value concept sees the funds investing in attractively valued equities, only bought when the share price is below book value.
This is combined with the sentiment approach, whereby the fund manager takes account of the market sentiment affecting each security. In particular, the manager identified the impact a change in market sentiment has on the share price.
Markus Ploner, managing director at Spängler IQAM Invest, said the model was already being applied to the two funds in question and the research team is working on integrating the approach into the management style.
The combination of the two approaches adds value to the equity portfolio by reducing its risk profile, while at the same time achieving better than average returns, Ploner explained.
The equities selected for the portfolio must have a low debt equity ratio and a constant level of profitability.
Both funds have shown positive performance in the last 12 months.
The emerging markets fund has shown a similar performance as the MSCI Emerging Markets index year to date – around 8.5%.
The Pacific fund, however, lags slightly behind the MSCI Asia Pacific benchmark, with 5.1% returns against 7.6% of the MSCI.
The new investment strategy, however, includes a quality filter, which will allow the fund provider to select the best quality equities, leading to improved performance figures.
