Jupiter European Opportunities has announced interim results for the six months to the end of November 2014. The fund outperformed its benchmark, delivering a 3.4% return on NAV as compared to a 0.4% fall in the FTSE Word Europe ex UK Index. The shares moved from trading at a small premium to trading at a small discount however and so the return to shareholders was 0.4%.
The manager says the outperformance was partly due to the fund’s sector exposures: underweight in the financial and oil and gas sectors, which underperformed; overweight in consumer sectors which outperformed. The Financial companies that were in the portfolio did well on average – the report cites Provident Financial (home credit), Leonteq (the Swiss provider of structured financial products), Grenkeleasing (a German based leasing company) and Deutsche Börse (the German stock exchange) as significantly adding to returns. Other ‘winners’ included Reed Elsevier, the Anglo Dutch publishing business and the healthcare companies, NovoNordisk and Fresenius. The managers says all three benefited from strong industry positions coupled with robust demand for their products globally. On the other hand, the oil services companies Fugro and CGG, and the agriculture technology business Syngenta, detracted from returns. The oil services companies have proved to be more geared to the oil price than the oil companies themselves.
JEO : Onwards and upwards for Jupiter European