Investment Strategy
The Berenberg Multi Asset Defensive fund pursues a defensive global multi-asset strategy with a focus on Europe. Central to the approach is a broad diversification across asset classes, segments, sectors, currencies and regions to take advantage of beneficial correlation properties that go beyond traditional equity and bond investments. A special focus is on uncorrelated alternative investments, not only as an additional source of income but also as a source of stability. The active management of investment ratios, capital commitment periods as well as regional and sectoral allocations, especially from a risk management perspective, ensures participation in the capital markets while having a defensive investment approach.
- Modern solution for risk-aware investors
- Active positioning against a mixed market benchmark
- Maximum equity allocation of 30%
- Investment universe includes individual stocks, funds, ETFs and derivatives
Learn more about our Berenberg Multi Asset investment philosophy
Further details on the opportunities and risks of this fund can be found in the sales prospectus.
Indexed performance
Performance in 12-month periods
Currencies
Asset classes
Top Holdings
Equities - Sectors
Equities - Countries
Bonds - Sectors
Bonds - Countries
Monthly market comment
Building on their February performance, global equity markets continued to rise in March. One of the main drivers of the strong performance was continued economic optimism, underpinned by robust macroeconomic data. As a result, quality stocks were overshadowed by risk appetite in March and underperformed on a relative basis. We kept the Fund's equity allocation fairly constant in March and made some adjustments under the surface. Government bond yields in the US and Europe traded sideways in a somewhat volatile fashion, ending the month below their levels at the beginning of the month, while credit spreads continued to narrow. The Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged at 5.5% in March, while the Bank of Japan raised interest rates for the first time in 17 years. The price of gold rose sharply by around 9% in March to close at an interim all-time high of USD 2,230, which benefited the Fund due to its significant overweight in gold.
Portfolio Management
Christoph Netopil
Christoph Netopil has been with Berenberg since 2014. Since 2016 he has been working as a portfolio manager in the area of multi-asset mandates. Besides being the portfolio manager of the multi-asset fund Berenberg Multi Asset Defensive, he is also responsible for total return strategies as well as special mandates with a focus on derivatives and portfolio protection. After graduating in business administration from Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and working in account management at Allianz Global Investors, the certified stock exchange trader completed a trainee program at Sal. Oppenheim.
Ansgar Nolte
Ansgar Nolte, CFA, has headed the Multi Asset Portfolio Management division at Berenberg since 2013. In this function, he has been responsible for balanced and equity-oriented strategies since the beginning of 2018. He is a member of the Asset Allocation Committee and in this function is jointly responsible for the tactical asset allocation and the house view. After completing his banking apprenticeship, he continued his training as a part-time bank business economist (BA). He is also a CFA charterholder. Before joining Berenberg in 2011, he worked for several years as a senior portfolio manager for UBS and previously for Deutsche Bank in Hamburg. He has more than 20 years of professional experience in portfolio management, of which more than ten years in management positions