Tom O’Hara and John Bennett, Portfolio Managers of Henderson European Focus Trust, talk about the micro/macro factors affecting European equity markets, how they are navigating some of these challenges, and highlight the benefits of their style agnostic approach. They also touch on the impact of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine on the ESG landscape.

Key Takeaways

• We are style agnostic – meaning that we hold a blend of growth and value stocks  and this has helped us navigate (and avoid) some of the equity drawdowns that the more growthier segments of the market have experienced.
• As the cost-of-living crisis has intensified, we have been refining our exposure to the consumer-focused companies that might be affected by lower consumer spending.
• For us, it doesn’t matter where a company is coming from – where is it going? If a company can run down its fossil fuels, whilst deploying those cash flows towards green fuels and renewables – surely this has to be a winning solution for society.

Catch up on previous episodes of Trust Radio

Glossary Expand

Growth investing – Growth investors search for companies they believe have strong growth potential. Their earnings are expected to grow at an above-average rate compared to the rest of the market, and therefore there is an expectation that their share prices will increase in value.

Value investing – Value investors search for companies that they believe are undervalued by the market, and therefore expect their share price to increase. One of the favoured techniques is to buy companies with low price to earnings (P/E) ratios.