Find out why Ninety One’s Value team believes in a ‘structural’ approach to value. At the core, this means looking for good businesses that are cheap because they have suffered a large but temporary blow.
Portfolio manager Alessandro Dicorrado cautions against a ‘cyclical’ approach to value: hoping that the market will suddenly re-rate value equities generally. He sees no fundamental reason why it should.
Alessandro argues that value characteristics are best used for idea generation – with the ultimate aim of building a portfolio of good businesses experiencing hard times – rather than portfolio construction.
With a structural value approach, investors are not relying on a re-rating of the ‘value factor’ to generate performance. Rather, the aim is to generate returns as the good businesses you own recover.
General risks. All investments carry the risk of capital loss. The value of investments, and any income generated from them, can fall as well as rise and will be affected by changes in interest rates, currency fluctuations, general market conditions and other political, social and economic developments, as well as by specific matters relating to the assets in which the investment strategy invests. If any currency differs from the investor’s home currency, returns may increase or decrease as a result of currency fluctuations. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Environmental, social or governance related risk events or factors, if they occur, could cause a negative impact on the value of investments.
Specific risks. Currency exchange: Changes in the relative values of different currencies may adversely affect the value of investments and any related income. Derivatives: The use of derivatives is not intended to increase the overall level of risk. However, the use of derivatives may still lead to large changes in value and includes the potential for large financial loss. A counterparty to a derivative transaction may fail to meet its obligations which may also lead to a financial loss. Equity investment: The value of equities (e.g. shares) and equity-related investments may vary according to company profits and future prospects as well as more general market factors. In the event of a company default (e.g. insolvency), the owners of their equity rank last in terms of any financial payment from that company. Concentrated portfolio: The portfolio invests in a relatively small number of individual holdings. This may mean wider fluctuations in value than more broadly invested portfolios. Emerging market (inc. China): These markets carry a higher risk of financial loss than more developed markets as they may have less developed legal, political, economic or other systems. Style Bias: The use of a specific investment style or philosophy can result in particular portfolio characteristics that are different to more broadly-invested portfolios. These differences may mean that, in certain market conditions, the value of the portfolio may decrease while more broadly-invested portfolios might grow.
