GBI – Good Governance Fund – April 2020 report

April saw a remarkable comeback. Following March, where the fund generated alpha as equity markets fell, the fund once again generated alpha during the turnaround. The GBI – Good Governance Fund Class SA was up 13.48% in April, which represents an outperformance over the index of 0.66%, bringing the accumulated outperformance to 10.17% year-to-date and 14.04% since inception.
BY ISABELLE DJIAN

GBI – Good Governance Fund April 2020 monthly report

In terms of sectors, the biggest positive contributors were an overweight allocation to Consumer Discretionary and an underweight allocation to two of the laggards for the month – Financials and Utilities. It was the overweight allocation to Consumer Staples that contributed most negatively to the relative performance, followed closely by an underweight exposure to Energy.

In terms of stocks, contributors to the portfolio included strong gains from Ebay and Apple. While the fund missed out on a big gain from Facebook, it also avoided General Electric, which was one of very few stocks that fell significantly in April.

What the last 14 months have shown is the fund’s ability to generate alpha in many different environments and market directions.  We believe this provides some empirical evidence of the fund’s deliberately agnostic approach to sectors and other investment styles, arguably carving out a place as a standalone factor in the world of investing.

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