Seen through the eyes of European investors, the first quarter of the year was the strongest in four years. MSCI World (in euros) delivered a return of 14.7 percent. March delivered a return of just under 3.0 percent. Risky asset classes like high-interest business bonds and EM government bonds also delivered a very high yield.

Most fixed income investors talk about engagement, but few actually influence their companies, the English language newswire Denmark based AMWatch wrote on Monday, in the light of a new whitepaper from Sparinvest called “Fixed Income engagement - where’s the impact?”

Under this headline the news site for asset managers AMWatch writes about at new passive mandate that Sparinvest is running for the Danish pension fund AP Pension. The mandate invests in sovereign bonds issued by emerging market of over EUR 536m.

The stock market continued its positive trend in February. A significant factor behind the rise in share prices has been a friendlier tone between President Donald Trump and president Xi Jinping. At the end of February, Donald Trump even cancelled a planned raise in customs duties on Chinese goods in the expectation that the trade deal negotiations could soon be satisfactorily (for him, anyway) concluded.

Funds currently authorized for distribution in the UK have to make use of a Temporary Permission Regime (TPR), where investment funds are authorized to continue new and existing regulated business within the scope of their current permissions in the UK for a limited period of time (currently planned for 3 years). Under the TPR, new sub-funds of Sparinvest can also be notified after BREXIT subject to certain conditions.

Nykredit has entered into a conditional agreement with the owners of Sparinvest Holdings SE for Nykredit to obtain 75% of the shares in Sparinvest.

Despite January’s disappointing macroeconomic key figures, the stock market had its best month for years. The MSCI World (in euros) rose by 7.4 percent, which is the biggest monthly return since October 2015.

The Lipper Fund Awards have for more than three decades honoured fund management firms, which have provided consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers.

Sparinvest have signed up to an initiative aimed at getting global index providers to exclude controversial weapon manufacturers from their mainstream indices.

Sentiment for equities reversed course in the fourth quarter of 2018. As recently as early October, MSCI World – an index of developed market equities – was at an all-time high, when measured in euros. Yet by the end of December, it had declined by over 12 percent.

In November 2018, the head of the American Central Bank, Jerome Powell, changed his tune when he indicated that we were closer to a natural interest rate than the market had first thought. In other words, the situation could be interpreted as Powell reacting to the stock market’s unease over the last months by easing up on any ambitions about overly tighten-ing monetary policy.

"The head of the Fed, Jerome Powell, had previously stuck to the line that short-term interest rates in the US were "well below" the natural interest rate that characterises a neutral monetary policy. Due to sharply declining inflation expectations, Powell changed his rhetoric to short-term interest rates being "just below" the natural rate. This caused investors to breathe a sigh of relief and sent stocks up sharply in the last days of the month."

This is the headline given by the Danish financial news site AMWatch to news of the recent listing of Sparinvest - Value Bonds - Global Ethical High Yield on LGX - Luxembourg Green Exchange. This is the third Sparinvest fund Sparinvest to be listed on the ESG window of the green exchange.

The Democrats now have the power to block further tax reductions and expansionary fiscal policies, both of which could cause interest rates to rise because of a greater deficit.

At Sparinvest, our responsible investment approach is built on our conviction that environmental, social and governance opportunities and risks can have a major impact on long-term returns, and that it is therefore an essential part of our duty to clients to consider ESG issues in our investment processes.

On the surface, third quarter felt like a good one for global equities. Markets extended their gains from the second quarter, and the broad MSCI World index rose 5.53 percent.

Key points in Sparinvest’s Strategy 2022 plan

"Recently, a rather worrying phenomenon is characterising the USA in particular. There is a very great difference between the so-called ‘soft data’ (surveys, expectations etc.) and so-called ‘hard data’ (directly measurable developments). In other words, both ISM and PMI figures are very high at the moment in the USA in relation to what the hard data ought to be showing. Soft data includes investor confidence, and the S&P 500’s rocket-like rise makes it hard to blame investors for being optimistic."

Sparinvest has appointed 48-year-old Swede Thomas Gunnarsson as new Chief Investment Officer. He is to replace Jørgen Søgaard-Andersen, who took over as Chief Executive Officer after Per Noesgaard on September 1st.

August was dominated by negative news from the developing countries, or Emerging Markets.

After 22 years as CEO at Sparinvest Per Noesgaard resigns on September 1, 2018, where he will be succeeded by Jørgen Søgaard-Andersen, who has had title of both Deputy CEO and Investment Director since the turn of the year.

Identifying stocks that trade for less than their intrinsic value - therefore having upside potential - has always been at the core of Per Kronborg Jensen's portfolio management and investment style.

July has seen a number of contradictory statements from Trump about trade policy.

The recent published top marks to Sparinvest from UN PRI are noticed in the press. The English language newsletter AMWatch has interviewed Head of Responsible Investment at Sparinvest, Nichola Marshall, who explains what is behind the Sparinvest UN PRI A+ marks four years in a row.

For the fourth year in a row, Sparinvest has received top marks (A+ for Strategy and Governance) from the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) for its approach to responsible investing and ESG integration.

During the last quarter, global developed markets gained a satisfactory 7.6% when measured in Euros – and that currency impact is significant.

The euro is under pressure and has fallen by around 7.0 percent over the past few months. In 2017, the euro was able to defy the headwind caused by the yield spread and stand strong to the USA because of a surprisingly healthy economic development. However, the OECD’s leading indicator (CLI) has now turned downwards for the Eurozone and points towards a continued rapid deceleration towards the end of the year.

20 years ago, value investment was a relatively unknown concept in Denmark and the rest of Europe, although it enjoyed more attention in the US.

Over the course of May there were a series of danger signals that all point towards the same conclusion: for the first time in more than a year, readers of the monthly report are advised to be underweight shares in relation to their long-term target allocations, writes Sparinvest’s chief strategist, David Bakkegaard Karsbøl, in his June report.

Sparinvest’s chief startegist, David Bakkegaard Karsbøl, points out in his May report that the leading indicators have peaked and that we are now in a deceleration phase.

Thursday, May 3rd, the Luxembourg Green Exchange, listed funds that operate with an ESG integration strategy in the mainstream investment universe.

Uncertainty fueled volatility - Despite a stellar start to the year, global equity markets ended the first quarter with negative returns.

"With the release of the OECD’s leading indicators at the start of March we saw that they had already peaked at the end of 2017. The publication led to a revision of previous values, which is why the peak can only be seen now," writes Chief Strategist at Sparinvest, David Bakkegaard Karsbøl, in his monthly comment for April.

Sparinvest is proud to announce that we have won the Thompson Reuters Lipper Fund Award for Best Group in the Netherlands.

When investors structure and diversify their equity portfolios, a key reference is the value/growth style framework that has dominated the fund industry for decades. Once target allocations are set, investors then select the funds offering the most appropriate risk and reward characteristics.

Sparinvest is proud to be among the prestigious Thomson Reuters Lipper Award winners in 2018.

"The leading indicators are approaching a peak and as the share markets have already started poorly in March, investors should prepare themselves for having to reduce their tactical allocations to shares by the start of April, said chief strategist at Sparinvest, David Bakkegaard Karsbøl, in his montly comment for March.

"At the end of January, the markets were set for a perfect storm. A decades-long trend of falling interest rates and falling inflation – and inflation expectations – seemed to have ended, as the 10-year U.S. government bond yield broke the downward trend since 1987," says chief strategist at Sparinvest David Bakkegaard Karsbøl in his monthly comment for February.

Healthy markets and decent performance

The OECD leading indicators (CLI) for the USA, the Eurozone and Japan all point towards a synchronised global recovery.

“At the start of December, the US senate more or less passed President Trump’s tax reform, which was already approved by the House of Representatives. The two houses still need to agree on the finer details but these can be seen as minor issues. To all intents and purposes, we now know the main contents of the tax reform.”

Value investing has been declared dead and has come back alive several times over the last 20 years. The past couple of years though, markets have shown that, when interest rates move slightly upwards, this fuels an outperformance in value stocks.

Quarterly report Value Equities Q3 2017

Overall, the picture of equity markets performing well since early 2016 has not changed. Measured in Euros, global developed markets (MSCI World index) fell 2.5%, global emerging markets (MSCI EM) fell 0.4%, and European mar-kets (MSCI Europe) gained 0.7% in Q2.

The first quarter of 2017 was a very strong quarter for credit investors. All our credit products performed well and so did Emerging Market Debt. With the exception of market weakness in March, which again turned out to be a dip to buy, markets were strong. Our global strategies were flat to slightly ahead of their benchmarks and our emerging market strategies lagged their benchmarks.

2016 was a decent year for equity returns, and this continued in the first quarter of 2017. Developed markets rose almost 5%, with Europe slightly outperforming the US, and Japan slightly weaker. Emerging Markets led the way, partly thanks to their attractive valuations.

The last quarter of 2016 was without doubt eventful. Trump won the race to become the next president of the USA, that itself was not a surprise given the close odds for quite some time, but what most investors did not expect was the market reaction to his win.

The last quarter of 2016 saw a strong end to the year for equity markets. This was also reflected in our funds, which generated solid returns in the quarter, and over the full year.

Sparinvest Investment Grade Value Bonds have received the prestigious French L’AGEFI award in the category International Bonds.

Jens Moestrup Rasmussen, chief portfolio manager at Sparinvest, has argued at the recent Nordic Investment Managers Forum Luxembourg that investors are ignoring value investing at their peril given the prevailing investment environment.

If rates are starting to point upward, and money continues to leave the bond-proxies and the market cap-weighted indices, it will likely go into stocks that are smaller, or more overlooked, and attractively priced. We are well-positioned to take advantage of renewed investor interest in those kind of stocks. This is one of the main points in the latest quarterly report from our value shares team.

In the category “Equity Global ” Jens Moestrup Rasmussen has been awarded two gold medals for excellent fund management.

The former Chairman Torben Nielsen has decided to resign from the Board of Directors with effect from 24 September 2016.

“It has been a difficult period for Emerging Market equities over the last few years, with GDP growth in these countries slowing compared to developed markets”, says David Orr, Senior Portfolio manager at Sparinvest, in an interview about the fund Sparinvest Ethical Emerging Market Value.

In recent years, Japan has seen a reform agenda which includes the introduction of a clear Corporate Governance Code. This highlights to listed companies the importance of long-term value creation and healthy dialogue with their shareholders. Meanwhile, the growing Responsible Investment movement means increasing numbers of investors are reaching out to companies to engage on ESG issues.

Sparinvest is delighted to have been successful in renewing its LuxFLAG ESG Label for the fund Sparinvest SICAV – Ethical Global Value and in getting approval on first application for an ESG Label for Sparinvest SICAV – Ethical Emerging Markets Value, one of the first Emerging Markets funds to obtain such a label.

Jacob Nordby Christensen, 45 years, will from today be Chief Sales Officer of Sparinvest. He replaces Peter Møller Lassen, who resigns by mutual agreement with the Board of Directors and Executive Management. The resignation happens because of disagreement on the execution of Sparinvest's 2018 strategy.

For the second year in a row, the PRI Assessment Report gave Sparinvest an A+ score for our overarching approach to re- sponsible investment. We understand that only 15% of PRI signatories achieved this score.

A month dominated by Brexit ended relatively well as the initial Brexit shock slowly abated and stocks rebounded to pre-Brexit levels. While financial markets are likely to remain volatile for some time due to political turmoil, they also offer interesting opportunities across the board for value investors.

It has been a very strong quarter for credit markets, although June turned out weaker.

100 investors representing over US$16 trillion in AuM and six credit rating agencies have signed up to a PRI sponsored Statement advocating the incorporation of ESG risks in credit ratings.

Q1 2016 Letter to Shareholders - Value Equity:
It’s been a volatile start to the year. Many questions remain, and such periods of uncertainty are never relaxing. The world is still working to find a foothold for growth and inflation. We are encouraged by the rally in February and March, and by the increased levels of M&A activity that our holdings have experienced lately.

The month of February has seen optimism return to the markets. Shares have returned from their bombed out posi-tion at the beginning of the month, and the high-yield market has finally also got its act together and reduced credit spreads. What looked like a high-risk situation for the financial system back in January now appears to be quietly settling down.

Chief Strategist at Sparinvest, David Bakkegaard Karsbøl, comments on the developments in the financial markets with a particular focus on China. He does not believe a hard landing in China and recommends that investors slowly starts to buy up shares.

Highlights from Q4: Our Investment Grade strategy delivered strong performance, High Yield saw challenges and our Emerging Markets funds underperformed on the back of energy and mining exposures.

Bent Sørensen has joined Sparinvest in a newly created position as Head of Communications, an area of responsibility that also includes corporate marketing.

Head of Responsible Investment, Nichola Marshall, explains Sparinvest’s engagement policy and approach, and gives an example of a recent engagement with a portfolio company. She also considers forthcoming ESG ratings and different carbon footprinting metrics.

A German lawsuit, claiming that shares were sold too cheap when Deutsche Bank acquired the company Deutsche Postbank from Deutsche Post in 2010, is currently taking place in the Cologne appeal court. The outcome of the case is uncertain, but in the event that the plaintiff’s claim is approved by the court, a number of Sparinvest SICAV sub-funds can potentially gain from the lawsuit, being former Postbank shareholders.

The last quarter of 2015 ended up being a good one. Markets rebounded strongly from September lows. Over the full year, developed markets delivered strongly positive returns, while emerging markets had somewhat negative returns.

“It is at times of stress that bottom-up investors can take advantage of the opportunities available, so we are very excited about the current environment when looking to deploy our built-up cash balances.”

‘Correction or Crisis?’, ‘Doomsday or Opportunity?’ are the questions posed in our Letter to Shareholders after global stock markets registered their worst quarterly performance in four years. As China struggles to mould a new model economy and the Fed hesitates on interest rate hikes, volatility and investor uncertainty have peaked again – arguably creating the perfect bargain-hunting conditions for the value investor.

The suspension, entering into effect on 24 August in a number of sub-funds, has now been terminated.

The board of directors of Sparinvest SICAV has decided to merge certain sub-funds with the aim of optimizing and streamlining the fund range.

In the latest Responsible Investment Review, Nichola Marshall, Head of RI, looks at Sparinvest’s latest UN PRI reporting and assessment scores, climate change considerations, new Ethical fund screening criteria and ESG in a quant fund.

Sparinvest’s Value Bond strategies will continue to maximize returns by identifying and investing in smaller bond issues. But the portfolios will be more balanced from a liquidity perspective in order to minimize risks from crowded trades as well as reduce tracking error.

Q2 was rather downbeat after the peaks of Q1. However, Sparinvest’s Value Equities team finds plenty to be positive about – including an outstanding reporting season for European companies, interest rate developments that should be benign to the value strategy, and an increase in value-enhancing transactions – especially in Japan.

“As oil prices bottomed out and secondary market liquidity improved… the High Yield strategy started to perform late in the quarter. The fund is also posed to benefit from the ECB’s QE programme”

After one of the best quarters ever for Sparinvest’s global value equity strategies, the team considers reasons for the rallies in the European and Japanese markets and highlights some of the benefits of active investment – including a focus on ESG risks - which passive investing is unable to offer.

In his Monthly Comment for March, David Bakkegaard Karsbøl looks at the continuing strengthening of European data. He also looks at the mixed figures from US, the influence of interest hikes on US stocks and the promising outlook for European shares.

Nichola Marshall, Head of Responsible Investment at Sparinvest, describes aspects of the Group’s active ownership programme including exclusion policies, forms of engagement and the increasingly important concept of stewardship.

In the monthly comment for January, David Bakkegaard Karsbøl offers his views on an action-packed start to 2015 that saw elections in Greece and quantitative easing from the ECB. Read how both factors impact markets in Sparinvest’s latest update on the global economy.

“Factor-based investing [in corporates] is a strategic decision, and Sparinvest is convinced that the Value Bonds strategies will continue to generate long-term alpha through the market cycles to come.”

“Valuation is the key and we continue to work thoroughly to keep the portfolio invested in the companies that we believe are among the most discounted out there today.”

(NO ACTION REQUIRED BY YOU AT THIS TIME - OTHER THAN TO NOTE THE CONTENTS OF THIS LETTER.)

In his final monthly report for 2014, David Bakkegaard Karsbøl sees the potential for European economic growth to improve fairly rapidly from its current low point, with signs of improved competitiveness for European companies. Political events in Russia and Greece, however, give cause for concern. The US business cycle is reaching maturity with improvements in the housing market likely to fuel further consumption growth giving spill-over benefits for Europe.

In the November Monthly Economic Report, David Bakkegaard Karsbøl predicts a period of stagnation for Europe. However there are sufficient growth-supporting factors at play for the region to avoid recession. By contrast, the picture in the US economy is one of ‘gradual overheating’ with the mood ‘optimistic bordering on the unrealistic’.

“Hugging the benchmark pays off… so long as most people keep doing it. History has shown that such periods always come to an end. When that happens, the rewards for value investors can be swift and large.”

Read how Chief Strategist David Bakkegaard Karsbøl sees the prospects for growth in Europe and interest rate hikes in the US. In addition to this, you can also read how deflation in Southern Europe may impact the economies in question.

“The essence of Sparinvest’s Value Bonds Strategy is that a proprietary bottom-up investment process, with a thorough credit analysis, permits a superior credit carry premium to the benchmark(s).”

In recent monthly comments, Chief Strategist David Bakkegaard Karsbøl has described how he expected the industrial production in particular EU countries to slacken somewhat as we approach New Year.

Read what the coming months might hold in store for the global financial markets in the August edition of the monthly report by Chief Strategist David Bakkegaard Karsbøl. Among other things, you can read why European equities still seem attractive in spite of dampening short-term growth prospects for Europe and why the upswing in the US seems to continue.

“One very important reason why there is not a bubble in corporate bonds is the fact the global default outlook is still good – i.e. defaults will probably stay around 2-3% p.a. for the next couple of years.”

In the latest edition of his monthly newsletter, Sparinvest’s Chief Strategist, David Bakkegaard Karsbøl reports on a maturing recovery with signs of recovery for both industrial production and the labour market..

“More than 90% of our holdings remain below their peak earnings. This points to under-utilised assets and the potential for further earnings improvement or recovery”

Sparinvest’s Chief Strategist, David Bakkegaard Karsbøl, gives his views on the latest developments in the world economy in a monthly newsletter. June’s edition looks at – amongst other things – a ‘risk-on’ summer for equities,
Yellen, the interest rate oracle, El Nino and Iraq - potential boosts to inflation, negative deposit rates in Europe and mixed figures from China.

Sparinvest’s Chief Strategist, David Bakkegaard Karsbøl, gives his views on the latest developments in the world economy in a monthly newsletter. May’s edition looks at – amongst other things – strong performance from global equities (even stronger from EM), the Russia stand-off, good data from the US, the negative spiral in China’s real estate market and European monetary policy.

An article published Citywire names Sparinvest’s Kasper Billy Jacobsen as the only global small & mid caps specialist to have outperformed in each of the past five years.

Sparinvest has been heavily involved in setting up a new initiative with LuxFLAG, the Luxembourg fund-labelling agency, to launch a new LuxFLAG ESG label.

“There is a discernible relationship between long-term interest rates and style performance over time. The return to a more normal interest rate trend should favour value stocks.”

“We see two opportunities to beat the market – European financials and off-benchmark small caps. Together they can generate attractive returns”

“We see two opportunities to beat the market – European financials and off-benchmark small caps. Together they can generate attractive returns”

“There is a discernible relationship between long-term interest rates and style performance over time. The return to a more normal interest rate trend should favour value stocks.”

​This is the question posed by David Bakkegaard Karsbøl in his latest monthly macro-economic comment for March. Why are markets are treating this Cold War-like conflict with such apparent calmness, while over-reacting to every new indication that China’s growth is slowing.

“Even after the strong performance in 2013, we still believe that equity is the most attractive asset class."

“We expect 2014 to be a ‘carry-friendly’ year for credit markets, featuring better growth in developed markets with inflation remaining low.”

In his latest monthly comment, Sparinvest’s Chief Strategist, David Bakkegaard Karsbøl, explains why the ‘January effect’ was absent from world equity markets.

Three years ago, Sparinvest launched the Emerging Markets Corporate Value Bonds strategy, which quickly proved its worth. The flagship fund for the strategy has achieved 5 Morningstar stars and was instantly ranked number 1 with Morningstar for its 3-year performance as soon as it turned three.

We are delighted to introduce the first monthly comment by Sparinvest’s new chief strategist David Bakkegaard Karsbøl. On a monthly basis, he will offer Sparinvest’s view on movements in the global economy and political developments that may impact financial markets.

On the third anniversary of its launch, Sparinvest Emerging Markets Corporate Value Bonds has received its first rating...

Sparinvest High Yield Value Bonds is best amongst peer group funds investing in high yield corporate bonds.

Why we like a slow, nervous recovery

It’s all About the Price Tag...

Managers of two value-based equity funds get gold medals from the renowned German rating agency, Sauren.

The second quarter was volatile for global equities, and also for our funds.

The reason for the introduction of ‘tapering off’ (the gradual ending of reliance on QE) in the US is that recovery is looking increasingly sustainable.

As a part of a determined response to the Savings and Loan Crisis of 1989, the US Federal Reserve launched what we would nowadays describe as Quantitive Easing Policy (QEP)...

It continues to be true that ‘you can’t fight the FED.’ Quantitative easing has worked and we are seeing increasing signs that the US recovery is pulling out of soft ground onto a firmer footing.

In our last letter, we noted our expectations for 2013: that investors’ risk appetites would gradually return and become more discerning, lifting global stock markets generally.

In September last year, a co-operation agreement was signed in Hong Kong and Shanghai between Luxembourg's Sparinvest Group and one of China's leading securities companies, Haitong.

The German ratings agency, Telos has awarded Sparinvest Emerging Markets Corporate Value Bonds an AA+ rating.

Our macro-economic view is one of guarded optimism.
We do not envisage steep recoveries occurring anywhere in the world, but we do see scope for the US and China to make gradual ‘middle-of-the-road’ recoveries, leading to slow improvement globally.

After more than four years of hunting for value in the wake of the global credit crisis, the portfolio of our Global Value Fund is – unsurprisingly – overweight in the most neglected and unpopular areas of the market, where we see the most compelling bargains.

Funds responding well when fear loosens grip on markets.

We continue to find pockets of high-yielding value ex-index.

With sovereign ceilings rising, corporate governance and overall transparency improving, demand and liquidity high and returns ...

The last 18 months have brought an earthquake in Japan and a debt crisis in Europe, and during much of this time macroeconomic worries ...

Sparinvest Holdings SE has entered a Heads of Agreement with Hai Tong Asset Management Limited...

The German ratings Agency, TELOS has awarded Sparinvest SICAV European Value an AA+ rating, ...

Sparinvest's High Yield Value Bonds was rated AAA- by the German rating agency, TELOS. One of the main reasons ...

Ikano Funds in Luxembourg has decided to merge all existing sub-funds into Sparinvest SICAV ...

TELOS has rated the Sparinvest High Yield Value Bonds.

Sparinvest has been named as one of the best users of Sustainable and Responsible Investment and Corporate Governance research in the asset management industry.

Emerging Markets countries have seen a growth slowdown in the last quarter. But in these countries – unlike Europe or the US ...

As a value investor Sparinvest has built an investment process to capture opportunities in the corporate bond market by value screening.