Bericht des Fondsmanagements (Stand: 29.02.2024)
The fund benefitted from the rise in Euro zone equity markets in November. Stock selection was notably positive in the month, which helped compensating the negative allocation effect that was mainly due to the funds overweight to healthcare. Within the sector, the lack of exposure to Bayer (not eligible as an investment due to our exclusion policy) was a clear positive, as well as the overweight in names such as Merck KGaA, Siemens Healthineers and BioMérieux, which are all strong convictions in the portfolio. Other notable contributors include some of the holdings that were recently entered or reinforced in the portfolio, such as BE Semiconductor Industries, ASML and SAP in the Technology sector. Among the most relevant trades on the sell side: the holding in Orange was fully exited (on ESG grounds), Sanofi was further reduced (credibility impacted by the unexpected downward revision to profitability ambitions), some profits were taken on Stratec and NEXI. On the opposite side, the holdings in Siemens AG, Siemens Healthineers, Novo Nordisk and REXL were reinforced.