Price and Performance

For the month of October, the Company’s Total Shareholder Return and NAV Total Return were 1.8% and 2.8% respectively, while the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) returned 3.4%.

Over the month, Microsoft Corp was the biggest contributor, with an absolute return of 15.7%. The global technology giant’s revenue grew 22% to $45bn, the highest quarterly growth for the company since 2014. Net profit figures for the quarter beat expectations by $4.8bn, driven by the strong performance of the cloud computing unit. The biggest detractor from performance this month was Meta Platforms Inc (formerly known as Facebook Inc), with an absolute return of -5.5%. The company had a difficult month in light of the document leak, containing information on its inner workings which were claimed to operate as "profit over safety". However, the complete rebranding of the Facebook Inc company to Meta Platforms led to a small uptick in the stock’s performance towards the end of the month, which is forecasted to continue. The metaverse platform is expected to create a better experience for consumers using augmented and virtual reality technology - from developing video games to using smart-eye glasses.

Within the Company’s portfolio, a position in Tencent was initiated by GQG Partners, on the back of continued growth in demand for cloud computing.  A position in Epam systems was also initiated by GQG Partners following strong revenue results for the third quarter of 2021, beating analysts’ expectations. In contrast, the position in Volkswagen was eliminated by Jupiter Asset Management as the manager redeployed capital to more attractive areas of the market, such as Intel, the largest integrated semiconductor designer which is accelerating its investment in faster device chips to regain technological leadership.