Specialists at small fund companies can outperform the general development for investors.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Cologne When it comes to communicating with customers and investing, the same applies to the Swiss asset manager Quantex: “No nonsense.” This is how the provider describes its investment philosophy on the homepage. In five multi-award-winning funds, Quantex is also pursuing a disciplined strategy that goes against the mainstream and far from indices.
The company relies on cheaply valued shares in companies with stable cash flows, high pricing power, low investment requirements and debts that are fixed as long as possible. A strategy that pays off. In the Assekurata analysis, Quantex achieved 87 points this year as a newcomer with its “Global Value Fund”, making it the best fund company (see chart below).
In 2022, for the third time, Assekurata also rated the fund companies in addition to the insurers. For this purpose, all funds that the insurers have in their policies were assigned to the respective providers. The mean value of the individual fund ratings results in the grade for the fund company. There are rankings for all funds and for individual categories such as “global equities” or “flexible mixed funds”.
“The differences in the fund companies are much more pronounced than in the ranking of the insurance companies,” says Lars Heermann, Head of Analysis and Valuation at Assekurata. Compared to Primus Quantex with its 87 points, Loys, the weakest company with a rated fund, only has 14 points.
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The difficult stock market environment has had an impact on the overall ratings of the fund companies. “There are fewer top ratings and more downward outliers than in the previous year,” says Lars Heermann. “Overall, however, as with the insurers, the grades for the fund companies are still above average.” At least 59 of 129 achieved the grade “very good” with 60 points and more, the best 25 even achieved 69 points and more.
In addition, 37 were rated “good” (50 to 59 points) and 21 were “satisfactory” (40 to 49 points). Only a minority of twelve companies scored less than 40 points and had to be satisfied with “sufficient” – two more than in the previous year. Behind Quantex, the British Legal & General and the French Natixis occupy second and third place.
Like Quantex and last year’s winner Brown Advisory, which came eleventh this time, these two companies are only represented with a single fund in the tariffs tested. Not a single one of the top 25 representatives in the “very good” segment placed more than seven funds in the insurance policies. These companies often have hardly any products left. “Wealth managers and specialized fund companies are very focused and then often deliver top services in their niches,” explains Lars Heermann.
Fund companies with a high proportion of sustainability can also score points
This also applies to the Swiss company Bellevue Asset Management, which focuses on healthcare and biotechnology funds and occupies ninth place in the ranking with two funds and 77 average points. The Frankfurt investment boutique Lupus Alpha specializes in small and mid-caps and scored 70 points. Fund companies with a high proportion of sustainability can also score points. This includes the Swiss Swisscanto, which achieved a respectable average of 67 points with at least seven funds. The Scandinavian Nordea achieves an average of 65 points with 13 funds.
“Both companies are not exclusively focused on sustainability. But they have been dealing with the topic for a long time and have set up corresponding flagship funds,” says Moritz Gribat, who is responsible for selecting the sustainable fund range at the insurer Cosmos.
The more a provider’s funds are used in the insurer’s portfolio, the more difficult it is to achieve top positions in the ranking. Because hardly any company can convince equally in all categories. After all, 14 fund companies with a two-digit fund number in the test still achieve the grade “very good”. The best performers were Flossbach von Storch with 68 points and the French BNP and the Swiss Pictet with 66 points. Pictet is known for theme funds, for example, in the “water” investment field.
As the best German fund company with more than ten funds, the Munich DJE achieves the “very good”. CEO Jens Ehrhardt founded his company 48 years ago. The doyen among German asset managers is well versed in both stocks and bonds. Accordingly, in this year’s ranking, DJE also wins the “balanced global mixed funds” sub-rating by a wide margin.
In the case of the largest German and international players in the fund industry, on the other hand, the tendency is towards the middle. With 60 points, DWS manages a narrow “very good” and Allianz Global Investors with 56 points “good”. The world’s largest investor, Blackrock, ranks with 55 points and the once much-vaunted company Franklin Templeton lands in the middle with 17 funds and 50 average points.
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