Report June 2024
Pareturn GVC Gaesco Columbus European Equity Fund I2 is down 5% in June. Since its inception in June 2008, Columbus is up 141% outperforming major European equity indices.
June was a negative month for the Fund after a good May, when it benefited from the Neoen takeover bid. The most relevant factor in June was the correction in French equities, which also affected other assets in Europe. The fund’s actual exposure to France is relatively small if we analyse the percentage of sales (around 5%). However, the exposure to French listed companies is higher (12% of NAV), but the companies we hold in our portfolio (e.g. Edenred, Neoen, Scor) are highly diversified global companies. We expect that when the election noise settles down, the valuations of these good companies will return to normal levels.
In June, we also had a good performance of relevant positions in the Fund, such as Reply (+9%) and EFG International (+9%). In the latter case, the press highlighted a potential merger operation that has not been executed so far. On the negative side, there was a profit warning in YouGov (-59%), until now a success story in data analysis that has suffered a slowdown in demand from corporate clients. The positions in Wise plc (-16%), Scor (-11%), Bodycote (-10%) and Edenred (-9%) also suffered this month. Grifols deserves special mention (-16% in the month of June), although it has strongly recovered in recent days following positive newsflow on the company.
This month, we have neither increased nor taken new positions.
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Since May 2023, Spanish investors can access the Columbus strategy through the Spanish fund GVC Columbus European Equities FI. The Fund can be purchased through the AllFunds, Inversis and Fundsettle platforms. Columbus has a Master-Feeder structure. The Pareturn GVC Gaesco Columbus European Equity Fund in Luxembourg (master) and the GVC Columbus European Equities FI (feeder). The Luxembourg vehicle offers institutional and retail share classes denominated in euros and sterling.
