e-fundresearch: "Welche fundamentalen Faktoren sind für die Markteinschätzung von Unternehmen im Sektor Basisindustrien derzeit am wichtigsten?" Christoph Schäfer, Fondsmanager, "LBBW Rohstoffe & Ressourcen" (ISIN: DE0005326482) (25.04.2012): "Aktuell erscheint uns die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung in China von entscheidender Bedeutung zu sein. Sollte die Abschwächung des Wachstums deutlicher ausfallen als prognostiziert, dürfte die Entwicklung des Segments Basisindustrien unterdurchschnittlich verlaufen. Sollten jedoch die Konjunkturdaten zeigen, dass die derzeitigen Bedenken übertrieben sind, sollte die Branche wieder zur Stärke tendieren."
Thomas Harmer & Bernhard Ruttenstorfer, Fondsmanager, "ESPA STOCK COMMODITIES EUR T" (ISIN: AT0000A01VS1) (27.04.2012): "Free Cash Flow Entwicklung, ROE, ROI, Wachstumsaussichten, Position in der Costcurve, Konkurrenzsituation."
Anne Schwartz, Portfolio Managerin, "SSgA Materials Index Equity Fund P" (ISIN: FR0000018442) (24.04.2012): "This question would not apply for the SSgA Materials Index Equity Fund since the fund is passively managed and seeks to match as closely as practicable the return characteristics of the MSCI Materials Index."
Frédéric van Parijs, Senior Portfolio Manager, "ING (L) Invest Materials P Cap USD" (ISIN: LU0119199791) (27.04.2012): "Expectations for more quantitative easing (QE), in the US, Europe or China, are the most important near term drivers. The current US recovery is pushing back more QE, while China is not really moving yet.
Fundamentally, China remains the most important driver behind the material sector. The more restrictive policy of China and other emerging markets last year hurt the sector. The policy has now become less restrictive, but before we see the results of that, the debate over a possible hard landing in China is still raging.
Mining and steel shares in particular have suffered from the more general flow away from emerging markets into developed markets. The more traditional cyclical chemicals on the contrary have recently performed well driven by the cyclical momentum in the US and Europe.
Gold has been a good performing segment last year but has been weak this year. Without QE and inflation, gold has lost some of its attraction. Gold shares continue to lag physical gold.
A possible reacceleration of Chinese growth in the second half of 2012 could drive the basic materials shares up again.
The key stock risk to watch going forward beyond the macro risk is the propensity of the mining companies to raise capex leading to cost inflation. It puts returns at risk and has already led to a de-rating of mining shares."
e-fundresearch: "Welche Industriezweige werden im aktuellen Umfeld stärker profitieren?"
Christoph Schäfer, Fondsmanager, "LBBW Rohstoffe & Ressourcen" (ISIN: DE0005326482) (25.04.2012): "Uns erscheinen Titel aus dem Energiebereich, primär Öltitel, unterbewertet. Sollten die Ölpreise weiter auf dem hohen Level verbleiben, besteht hier Nachholpotenzial. Ähnlich, sogar noch etwas ausgeprägter, ist die Lage bei Goldminen. Die Unternehmen verdienen aktuell Rekordmargen und die Bewertungen der Titel preisen einen deutlich niedrigeren Goldpreis ein. Sollte der Goldpreis das aktuelle Niveau halten oder sogar noch weiter ansteigen, sind hier überproportionale Chancen vorhanden."
Thomas Harmer & Bernhard Ruttenstorfer, Fondsmanager, "ESPA STOCK COMMODITIES EUR T" (ISIN: AT0000A01VS1) (27.04.2012): "Uns gefallen derzeit sehr gut Chemie und hier Spezialität sowie Agrar, Ölservice, Öl aber nicht Gas."
Anne Schwartz, Portfolio Managerin, "SSgA Materials Index Equity Fund P" (ISIN: FR0000018442) (24.04.2012): "To ask which industries will benefit more in the current economic climate is an active asset allocation decision, not a passive one. Taken into account current active asset allocation in SSgA, we favor slightly risky assets over government bonds, including equities and thus we favorite also cyclical sectors such as materials, energy and industrials."
Frédéric van Parijs, Senior Portfolio Manager, "ING (L) Invest Materials P Cap USD" (ISIN: LU0119199791) (27.04.2012): "The traditional cyclical chemicals perform very strongly in the current cyclical environment. A reacceleration of China could refocus the market again on the long term underlying trend in the basic industries sector which is all about metals & mining and agrochemicals."
e-fundresearch: "Welche Elemente sind die wichtigsten in Ihrem Investmentprozess?"
Christoph Schäfer, Fondsmanager, "LBBW Rohstoffe & Ressourcen" (ISIN: DE0005326482) (25.04.2012): "Neben der Sektorenwahl (primär zwischen den Segmenten Energie, Wasser, Minen, Nahrungsmittel/Agrar und Edelmetalle) spielt auch die Fondsauswahl im jeweiligen Segment eine wichtige Rolle, so z.B., ob im Energiebereich eher der Fokus auf Energieunternehmen mit Schwerpunkt bei den fossilen Energien oder mit Schwerpunkt im alternativen Energiebereich gesucht wird."
Thomas Harmer & Bernhard Ruttenstorfer, Fondsmanager, "ESPA STOCK COMMODITIES EUR T" (ISIN: AT0000A01VS1) (27.04.2012): "Fundamentalanalyse, Meetings mit den Unternehmen, Markttrends, Gewinnmomentum, Politik und volkswirtschaftliche Faktoren."
Anne Schwartz, Portfolio Managerin, "SSgA Materials Index Equity Fund P" (ISIN: FR0000018442) (24.04.2012): "In all of our passive strategies, minimizing transaction costs is a key consideration. In our replicated portfolios, we generally hold every index constituent in approximately its index weight. In some instances, however, minimizing tracking error can come at a high price. For example, buying all the securities in an index – regardless of liquidity and transactions costs – may prove to be exorbitantly costly. Therefore, we constantly manage the trade-off between minimizing tracking error and keeping costs low. This may mean acquiring smaller, illiquid names through low-cost trading opportunities such as internal and external crossing, or using cash flows to rebalance our portfolios whenever possible, rather than creating turnover within the portfolio. Our strategy is to buy and hold securities, trading only when there are participant cash flows, a change to the index, or to reinvest cash from dividend income, tax reclaims, or corporate actions.
We also manage the trade-off between tracking error and costs through the way in which we trade index changes. Rather than trading entire positions at the close of a change date, we try to take advantage of the sometimes predictable pricing patterns of securities being added and deleted from an index. This may translate into buying and selling partial positions prior to or after the actual change date. We employ this strategy in an attempt to preserve client wealth."
Frédéric van Parijs, Senior Portfolio Manager, "ING (L) Invest Materials P Cap USD" (ISIN: LU0119199791) (27.04.2012): "The fund mainly invests in the urbanization trend in emerging markets (predominately China) that is driving high sustainable growth in underlying commodity demand (benefiting for example mining companies Rio Tinto and Xstrata). Copper is the long term favorite subsector. The fund also focuses on agricultural markets. Rising food consumption will put strains on arable land. Potash and agrochemicals are a cheap but efficient way of improving the yield of arable land. This could benefit Swiss agrochemical company Syngenta. The fund also focuses on continued digitalization and an increased environmental awareness that benefits selective specialty chemicals producers like Air Products and JSR)."
e-fundresearch: "Bitte kommentieren Sie die Performance- und Risikokennzahlen Ihres Fonds im laufenden Jahr und in den letzten 3 bzw. 5 Jahren."
Christoph Schäfer, Fondsmanager, "LBBW Rohstoffe & Ressourcen" (ISIN: DE0005326482) (25.04.2012): "Im aktuellen Jahr liegt der LBBW Rohstoffe & Ressourcen derzeit minimal im Plus. Belastend wirkte besonders die hohe Gewichtung des schwach laufenden Goldminenfonds sowie die Position im Bereich der alternativen Energien. Stabilisierend waren dagegen Positionen wie beispielsweise im Segment Wasser."
Thomas Harmer & Bernhard Ruttenstorfer, Fondsmanager, "ESPA STOCK COMMODITIES EUR T" (ISIN: AT0000A01VS1) (27.04.2012): "Durch einen Fondsmanagementwechsel gegen Ende 2011 kam es auch zu einer Änderung im Investmentansatz. Seit Dezember 2011 kommt der neue Investmentansatz zur Anwendung.
YTD konnte der Fonds seine Benchmark um ca. 1,6% schlagen. Dies gelang mit einer um ca. 1,6% niedrigeren Volatilität als jene der Benchmark. Der Tracking Error liegt unter 2%. Die Information Ratio liegt bei 3,05. Die Korrelation liegt bei 0,997 also sehr hoch. Der Erfolg liegt im Wesentlichen im Stockpicking begründet.
Auf Sicht von 3 Jahren lag die Volatilität ca. 0,8% höher als die der Benchmark, wobei die Performance in etwa jener der Benchmark entspach. Der Tracking Error lag bei ca. 2,4% und die Information Ratio bei 0,05. Die Korrelation lag bei 0,993
Auf Sicht von 5 Jahren lag die Volatilität ca. 2,4% höher als jene der Benchmark, wobei die Performance ca. 2,5% hinter der Benchmark war. Der Tracking Error lag bei ca. 5,8% und die Information Ratio bei 0,01. Die Korrelation lag bei 0,98."
Anne Schwartz, Portfolio Managerin, "SSgA Materials Index Equity Fund P" (ISIN: FR0000018442) (24.04.2012): "The fund seeks to track the performance of the MSCI Materials Index, minimizing the tracking error between the portfolio and the index. For this fund, we use a full replication indexing methodology to purchase the weighted-average securities that compose the index. As a result, the portfolio fully reflects the underlying index and does not assume active sector or security risk exposures. There as been no change in the methodology during the last 5 years. The Tracking Error 5 years is 0.19%."
e-fundresearch: "Erzielten Sie in den letzten 5 Jahren Out- oder Underperformance vs. Benchmark und welchen Anteil repräsentierte die Titelauswahl (Performance Attribution)?"
Christoph Schäfer, Fondsmanager, "LBBW Rohstoffe & Ressourcen" (ISIN: DE0005326482) (25.04.2012): "Verglichen zur Orientierungsgröße (50% MSCI World Materials in Euro und 50% MSCI Word in Euro) erzielte der Fonds in den letzten 5 Jahren eine Outperformance von etwas über 8%. Ein Großteil der Outperformance ist dabei auf die Sektorauswahl zurückzuführen, während die Fondsallokation (Einzeltitelauswahl) eher geringeren Einfluss auf die Performance hatte."
Thomas Harmer & Bernhard Ruttenstorfer, Fondsmanager, "ESPA STOCK COMMODITIES EUR T" (ISIN: AT0000A01VS1) (27.04.2012): "Auf Sicht von 5 Jahren wurde leider keine Outperformance erzielt, jedoch ein wesentlicher Teil der Managementgebühren durch aktives Stockpicking kompensiert (Underperformance ca. 0,5% p.a.). Seit Umstellung des Investmentansatzes im Dezember 2011 konnte eine signifikante Outperformance (siehe Punkt 4) erzielt werden, welche sich überwiegend auf das Stockpicking zurückführen läßt."
Anne Schwartz, Portfolio Managerin, "SSgA Materials Index Equity Fund P" (ISIN: FR0000018442) (24.04.2012): "Securities lending revenue generates some overperformance (around 6bps per year for the fund).
The fund is submitted to French taxation which is different from the Luxembourg taxation applied to the MSCI indices.
The fund is also submitted to entry/exit fees made to match the costs.
This fund is subject to big subscriptions / redemptions as it is used by some clients for allocation purposes. As a result, the NAV of the fund may vary a lot and the performances can be impacted (when big amounts are redeemed there can be a market impact)."
Frédéric van Parijs, Senior Portfolio Manager, "ING (L) Invest Materials P Cap USD" (ISIN: LU0119199791) (27.04.2012): "In the face of a Chinese slowdown, we kept a cautious approach by more balancing our allocation across sub sector throughout 2011.
However, since markets started rebounding during Q4 2011, we somewhat increased our weight in metals and mining in order to benefit from the sector’s rally.
The cyclical material sector showed strong absolute performance year-to-date as the sector rallied the market in the beginning of the year. Fundamentals were also supportive: China copper restocking emerged in January, steel price rose after a weak 2011 and mining companies outperformed the sector. Surprises came from cement producers which benefited from the growing perception that US housing has bottomed.
In spite of a supporting start of the year, the sector started lagging as doubts have risen over the Chinese economy and on the sustainability of the market rally. Chemical companies benefit from a strong restocking in Q1and led the sector.
The performance of the fund over 5 years can be explained by the effects of the credit crunch as markets were driven by continued rotation out of the sector and increasing fears for a global recession. Energy and Materials were therefore the worst performing sectors as commodity prices suffered large price drops amid worries about lower economic growth damping demand for raw materials. The sub sector allocation detracted explaining the underperformance over five years. On a positive side, stock selection was a positive contributor to performance. It did not outweigh the negative effect from sector allocation over five years.
Over the last three years, the sector showed strong performance driven by the momentum in commodities. The fundamentals remained strong, with the mining segment benefitting from resilient demand from developed countries and China driving emerging markets’ demand for copper. The fund’s overweight and stock selection in metals and mining names were the main contributor to the slight outperformance."
Top-10 Performance Daten per 16.04.2012, gereiht nach Performance 5 Jahre in % p.a.:
