Global Equity Enhanced Income Fund

$97.59
NAV
+$0.10 / +0.10%
$43.8M
Fund assets
15.16%
Year-to-date return
7/16/2020
Fund inception date
Data as of 10/2/2024
Fund overview
Targets high, consistent income and growth from global equities
The Global Equity Enhanced Income Fund seeks to deliver a high level of current income and long-term capital appreciation by investing in a diversified portfolio of global stocks together with an actively managed options overlay designed to generate additional income.

An innovative, dynamic approach that seeks to deliver high, consistent income and access to the growth potential of global equities

Key differentiators

  • Seeks to provide a targeted yield of 6% p.a.¹ based on prevailing market conditions
  • Uses two sources of income (equities and options), which are dynamically managed to balance the trade-off between income and capital growth
  • Aims to capture the long-term growth potential of global equities through a high-conviction portfolio of 60 to 80 stocks
  • Targets balanced factor, region and sector exposures to help mitigate style swings whilst capturing growth opportunities

¹ A target is indicative only, is not guaranteed and does not take into account fees or charges that will reduce returns. The targeted yield is based on prevailing market conditions and subject to change. There is no guarantee that the targeted yield, or any other level of income or returns, will be generated.

General facts

ISIN

LU2360032135

SEDOL

BLD39M7

Bloomberg

WFEEIAS LX

SFDR classification

8

Minimum investment

$1,000

Share class launch date

8/5/2021

Annual management fee

1.20%

Total expense ratio (TER)

1.40%

(as of 7/31/2023)

Benchmark name

MSCI ACWI Index (Net)

Settlement

T+2

Manager update – Q2 2024

Watch Eddie Cheng, head of International Portfolio Management (Systematic Edge Multi-Asset), and Sophie Careford, head of International Product Specialists, discuss fund performance drivers, portfolio developments and the role of equity income portfolios in the current inflationary and interest rate environment.

Transcript

Sophie Careford: So, Eddie, 2024. It's been a very strong year for global equities and, particularly, growth versus value. We've seen growth outperform value by over 10% year to date. So, how has this market environment been for you as an equity income manager?

Eddie Cheng: Yes. You're right. For the first half of 2024, the market had continuously been driven by those AI-related mega-cap companies, which led to a strong outperformance, as you mentioned, from the growth sector, given the positive momentum and sentiment over the value sector. And in this environment, typically, it is a very challenging environment for the traditional equity income strategies because the need for higher income would drive those strategies to invest in the company or focus on the companies with a deeper value bias or value-oriented characteristics.

Sophie Careford: Okay, so we know that Global Equity Enhanced Income is an income fund. So, how has it fared in this kind of market environment?

Eddie Cheng: So, we took a very, very different approach. So, the fund actually adopts a much more diversified approach. We not only wanted to deliver an attractive level of income for our investors, but we also wanted to provide a competitive total return for the fund. In this case, we can also focus more on our stock selection, bottom-up process to generate alpha to the benefit of our investors. So, in the first six months of the year, the fund actually delivered more than 15% on a year-to-date basis on total return. And also, more importantly, we distributed 6% per annum of the income on an annualized basis. So, by comparison, the fund outperformed the benchmark, which is the MSCI ACWI, by more than 400 basis points for the first six months. And also, more importantly, that it delivered more than a 400 basis point higher income than the index itself.

Sophie Careford: Okay, so 400 basis points more in total return and 400 basis points more in yield. So, can you tell us a bit about what's been driving performance so far this year?

Eddie Cheng: Yeah. So, the GEEI Fund actually had quite a strong second quarter. So, we delivered around 130 basis points of outperformance just into the second quarter. And most important is that we have a positive contribution from both of our equity and options sleeves. There are a couple of interesting insights, I think, are worth sharing. First, from a total return perspective, we do see a strong contribution from our positioning in the technology sector. And this is mainly coming from our bottom-up stock selection alpha, despite we actually have a small underweight in the technology sector. So, this just shows the robustness of our bottom-up research process. But on the income side, the portfolio also benefitted from a better-than-expected special dividend we received from a Chinese automaker. So, this better-than-expected special dividend not only helped us to build some buffer for our future income distribution, but also helped us to reduce the risk of the potential upside given up from our option portfolio.

Sophie Careford: Okay, nice. So, we've seen really strong stock selection, this special dividend, which seems to have boosted yield. You must have seen some risks. It can't all be this good.

Eddie Cheng: Yes, you're right. We did. And I think the major risk that actually came just a couple of weeks earlier is from the French snap election. And it did have some shortened impact and negative impact on a couple of names that we hold in the portfolio. Specifically, a couple of French companies have a direct exposure. We do monitor the situation very, very closely, but we have gone through the whole assessment, especially for those French companies, in terms of their fundamentals. We still believe they have strong fundamentals per our assessment, but we also are ready to act if the situation changes and then, we can change the portfolio, if necessary.

Sophie Careford: Well, sounds like you've got that situation well handled, but I'm sure we're probably going to have a bit more volatility when it comes to elections for the rest of the year. But I want to perhaps look at market outlook for a moment. So, we know that fixed income and cash have been particularly attractive over the last year or so due to the interest rate and inflationary environment. How does an equity income strategy fare in this kind of environment? And what kind of role can it play in a portfolio?

Eddie Cheng: You're right. Both fixed income and cash have been very popular with a lot of income investors in the last two years, given the level of yield they can provide. But on the other hand, the market started to build a consensus around that we probably are not too far away from a global rate cutting cycle and that might have a direct impact in terms of the yield that those asset classes can offer. But on the other hand, if you look at equity income, it still remains a very attractive and diversified source of income. But most importantly, equity as an asset class is very important for investors to grow their capital, as well as to protect their real purchasing power over the long term, especially in this higher-for-longer type of environment. So, we do see equity continue to play a very, very crucial role in our investors’ portfolio.

Sophie Careford: Makes a lot of sense, Eddie. Well, thank you very much. I think it's been a great quarter and year-to-date so far. And I think we'll be back next quarter to see how the portfolio has been doing.

Eddie Cheng: Thank you, Sophie, and I look forward to another chat.

Sophie Careford: Thank you.

Performance

Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Calendar year

Calendar year

(as of 12/31/2023)
2023
2022
Fund
15.72
-17.61
Benchmark
22.20
-18.36
Average annual returns

Average annual returns

(as of 8/31/2024)
8/5/2021
1M
3M
YTD
1Y
3Y
5Y
10Y
Inception
Fund
1.94
2.91
15.70
20.98
4.38
-
-
4.71
MSCI ACWI Index (Net)
2.54
6.51
15.97
23.44
5.77
-
-
6.08
Expenses (as of 7/31/2023)
Annual management fee
1.20 %
Total expense ratio (TER)
1.40 %

The ongoing charges/total expense ratio (TER) reflects annual total operating expenses for the class, excludes transaction costs and is expressed as a percentage of net asset value. The figure shown is from current KID. The investment manager has committed to reimburse the Sub-Fund when the ongoing charges exceed the agreed upon TER. Ongoing charges may vary over time.

Past performance is not indicative of future results. Performance calculations are net of all applicable fees and are calculated on an offer-to-bid basis (with income re-invested). Performance shown is for class and currency indicated and returns may increase/decrease as a result of currency fluctuations.

Returns do not reflect the imposition of the sales charge applicable to Class A shares. While the Fund does not currently impose a sales charge, the bank, sub-distributor or financial institution through whom you purchase shares may apply a sales charge up to 5.00%.

Cumulative

Cumulative

(as of 8/31/2024)

This chart shows the value of a hypothetical $10,000 investment in the fund over the specified time period up to 10 years or since its inception (for funds lacking 10-year records). The result is compared with benchmarks, which may include a broad-based market index and a peer group average or index. Market indexes do not include expenses, which are deducted from fund returns as well as mutual fund averages and indexes.

Does not include sales charges and assumes reinvestment of dividends and capital gains. If sales charges were included, returns would be lower.

Performance and volatility metrics

Performance and volatility metrics

Data is unavailable at this time, please check back later.
Morningstar ratings and rankings

Morningstar ratings and rankings

Data is unavailable at this time, please check back later.

Prices and distributions

Historical prices

YTD high $101.30 7/14/2024
YTD low $87.50 1/17/2024
52-week high $101.30 7/14/2024
52-week low $80.19 10/29/2023
2023 high $90.09 7/31/2023
2023 low $80.19 10/29/2023
Best quarterly return 10.01% 3/31/2024
Worst quarterly return -15.02% 6/30/2022
Best annual return 15.72% 12/31/2023
Worst annual return 0.00% 12/31/2021

Distribution summary

Dividends Quarterly
Capital gains

Distribution history

Distribution history Type Per share amount Re investment price
2024-10-01 Dividend $1.39762 $97.49
2024-10-01 Short-term capital gain $0.10014 $97.49
2024-07-01 Dividend $1.4934 $98.62
2024-04-02 Dividend $0.83636 $95.48
2024-04-02 Short-term capital gain $0.62704 $95.48
2024-01-02 Dividend $1.3506 $88.31
2023-10-02 Dividend $0.73233 $82.80
2023-10-02 Short-term capital gain $0.53547 $82.80
2023-07-03 Dividend $0.80274 $87.96
2023-07-03 Short-term capital gain $0.28688 $87.96
2023-04-03 Dividend $0.55299 $85.33
2023-04-03 Short-term capital gain $0.88309 $85.33
2023-01-03 Dividend $0.10275 $81.05
2022-10-03 Dividend $0.30749 $76.15
2022-07-01 Dividend $0.94526 $81.06
2022-04-01 Dividend $0.1733 $96.49
2022-04-01 Short-term capital gain $1.2886 $96.49
2022-01-03 Dividend $0.75553 $102.40
2022-01-03 Short-term capital gain $0.79637 $102.40
2021-10-01 Dividend $0.40945 $96.56
2021-10-01 Short-term capital gain $0.49161 $96.56
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Composition

Portfolio statistics

Portfolio statistics

(as of 8/31/2024)
Fund Benchmark
Number of Holdings 95 2757

Equity Style Box

(as of 8/31/2024) Overview chart

Placement within the Morningstar Equity Style Box is based on two variables: relative median market capitalization and relative price valuations (price/book and price/earnings) of the fund’s portfolio holdings. These numbers are drawn from the fund’s portfolio holdings figures most recently entered into Morningstar’s database and the corresponding market conditions. The Ownership Zone is represented by a shaded area surrounding the centroid. This zone encompasses 75% of a portfolio’s holdings on an asset-weighted basis and is designed to be a visual measure of how wide-ranging the portfolio is.

Holdings

Top 10 holdings

(as of 8/31/2024)
Security
Fund
Apple Inc.
4.01%
Microsoft Corporation
3.75%
NVIDIA Corporation
2.99%
Walmart Inc.
2.54%
Alphabet Inc. Class A
2.33%
Amazon.com, Inc.
2.12%
Colgate-Palmolive Company
2.08%
Hitachi,Ltd.
1.97%
Broadcom Inc.
1.87%
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR
1.86%
Top 10 represents 25.52% of total net assets

Based on ending weights as of month-end. Source: FactSet. The information shown is not intended to be, nor should it be construed to be, a recommendation to buy or sell an individual security.

Sector allocation

Sector allocation

(as of 8/31/2024)
Type
Fund
Benchmark
Information technology
20.87% 24.65%
Financials
18.45% 16.24%
Health care
10.33% 11.41%
Industrials
10.03% 10.56%
Communication services
9.08% 7.53%
Consumer discretionary
7.93% 10.17%
Consumer staples
7.17% 6.41%
Energy
5.88% 4.22%
Real estate
4.43% 2.20%
Other
3.50% -
Utilities
1.45% 2.64%
Materials
0.88% 3.98%

Based on ending weights as of month-end. Source: FactSet. Percent total may not add to 100% due to rounding.

Geographic allocation

Geographic allocation

(as of 8/31/2024)
Type
Fund
Benchmark
United States
61.01% 64.29%
United Kingdom
6.77% 3.43%
Japan
5.12% 5.21%
France
5.03% 2.57%
Other
3.46% 0.00%
China & Hong Kong
2.32% 2.84%
Germany
2.32% 1.99%
Netherlands
2.20% 1.12%
Brazil
2.09% 0.45%
Taiwan
1.85% 1.87%

Based on ending weights as of month-end. Source: FactSet. Percent total may not add to 100% due to rounding.

Currency allocation

Currency allocation

(as of 8/31/2024)
Currency
Share Class
Benchmark
Australian Dollar
0.87% 1.71%
Brazilian Rial
2.09% 0.45%
British Pound Sterling
6.77% 3.43%
Euro (EUR)
12.65% 7.55%
Hong Kong Dollar
2.32% 2.27%
Japanese Yen
5.12% 5.21%
South Korean Won
1.35% 1.16%
Swedish Krone
1.29% 0.74%
United States Dollar
64.08% 64.83%

Currency allocation is subject to change and may have changed since the date specified. Percent total may not add to 100% due to rounding.

ESG data summary

MSCI Overall ESG Score 1
Portfolio
7.1
Index
6.9
Sustainalytics ESG Risk Score 2
Portfolio
20
Index
20
SFDR Rating
 
8

Product involvement 3

Portfolio Benchmark
Controversial Weapons exposure 0.00% 1.44%
Oil Sands exposure 0.00% 0.21%
Small Arms exposure 0.00% 0.11%
Thermal Coal exposure 0.00% 0.91%
Tobacco exposure 0.00% 0.70%
UN Global Compact non-compliant exposure 0.00% 1.14%

¹ Data is sourced from MSCI ESG Research where companies are rated on a scale of 0 – 10 (0 - worst, 10 - best). Weighted average scores exclude effects of unrated securities.

² ESG Risk Ratings measure exposure to and management of ESG risks. Lower risk scores reflect less ESG risk. Sustainalytics ESG Risk Scores measure ESG risks on a scale of 0 – 100 (0 - no ESG Risk, >40 - Severe ESG Risk).

³ Carbon emissions includes operational and first-tier supply chain greenhouse gas emissions. Data sourced from S&P Trucost Limited.

⁴ Source: Allspring Global Investments. This report contains information developed by Sustainalytics. Such information and data are proprietary of Sustainalytics and/or its third-party suppliers (Third Party Data) and are provided for informational purposes only. They do not constitute an endorsement of any product or project, nor an investment advice and are not warranted to be complete, timely, accurate or suitable for a particular purpose. Their use is subject to conditions available at https://www.sustainalytics.com/legal-disclaimers. Copyright © 2023 Sustainalytics. All rights reserved.

Documents

Literature Date Language
Commentary 6/30/2024 English Download
Fact Sheet 8/31/2024 English Download
Fact Sheet 8/31/2024 Italian Download
Fact Sheet 8/31/2024 Korean Download
Fund Profile 12/31/2023 English Download
Monthly Commentary 8/31/2024 English Download
Regulatory Document Date Language
Lux Fund Sustainability-Related Disclosures 4/16/2024 English Download
PRIIPs KIDs 1/29/2024 English Download
PRIIPs KIDs 1/29/2024 French Download
Our team
Meet the investment team

The team believes company returns are predictable based on quantitative factors. They seek to systematically harvest these factors to generate alpha for their clients.

Key risks

Smaller-company securities risk: Securities of companies with smaller market capitalisations tend to be more volatile and less liquid than securities of larger companies.

Geographic concentration risk: Investments concentrated in specific geographic regions and markets may be subject to greater volatility due to economic downturns and other factors affecting the specific geographic regions.

Global investment risk: Securities of certain jurisdictions may experience more rapid and extreme changes in value and may be affected by uncertainties such as international political developments, currency fluctuations and other developments in the laws and regulations of countries in which an investment may be made.

ESG risk: Applying an ESG screen for security selection may result in lost opportunity in a security or industry resulting in possible underperformance relative to peers. ESG screens are dependent on third-party data and errors in the data may result in the incorrect inclusion or exclusion of a security.

Currency risk: Currency exchange rates may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time and can be affected unpredictably by intervention (or the failure to intervene) by relevant governments or central banks, or by currency controls or political developments.

Emerging markets risk: Emerging markets may be more sensitive than more mature markets to a variety of economic factors and may be less liquid than markets in the developed world.

Equity securities risk: These securities fluctuate in value and price in response to factors impacting the issuer of the security as well as general market, economic and political conditions.

Contact Us

We look forward to helping you with your investment needs

 

Investors should note that, relative to the expectations of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, this fund presents disproportionate communication on the consideration of non-financial criteria in its investment policy.
 

The ongoing charges/total expense ratio (TER) reflects annual total operating expenses for the class, excludes transaction costs and is expressed as a percentage of net asset value. The figure shown is from current KID. The investment manager has committed to reimburse the Sub-Fund when the ongoing charges exceed the agreed upon TER. Ongoing charges may vary over time.
 

Any benchmark referenced is for comparative purposes only, unless specifically referenced otherwise in this material and/or in the prospectus, under the Sub-Funds’ Investment Objective and Policy.
 

†Promotes environmental and social characteristics but does not have a sustainable investment objective
 

†While the Sub-Funds listed above have access to both internal and external ESG research and integrate financially material sustainability risks into their investment decision-making processes, ESG-related factors are considered but not determinative, permitting the relevant Sub-Investment Managers to invest in issuers that do not embrace ESG; as such, sustainability risks may have a more material impact on the value of the Sub-Fund’s investments in the medium to long term. The investments underlying these Sub-Funds do not take into account the EU criteria for environmentally sustainable economic activities.
 

The Morningstar Rating™ for funds, or star rating, is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar risk-adjusted return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The Morningstar Rating does not include any adjustment for sales loads. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its 3-, 5-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% 3-year rating for 36–59 months of total returns, 60% 5-year rating/40% 3-year rating for 60–119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% 5-year rating/20% 3-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent 3-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

© 2024 Morningstar. All rights reserved. The information contained herein is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; may not be copied or distributed; and is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.