Portfolio manager comments — Q1 2025
The first quarter of 2025 included a bit of drama for the global equity markets, primarily due to the Trump administration’s proposal on tariffs. A lack of clarity about the structure of the tariffs and their presumed negative impact on inflation and growth created uncertainty, which was viewed unfavorably by the market.
In addition, DeepSeek, a Chinese competitor to ChatGPT, was launched and took the market by surprise, resulting in broad declines within both technology and electrification. At the same time, investors made a clear move away from the US where risk tolerance decreased. As a result, performance was weak in the US stock market during the quarter, in particular for the so-called MAG 7 companies, the technology sector overall as well as cyclical companies.
These turbulent times and significant shifts in the market have led to more substantial changes than normal in the portfolio. We added a number of new companies in line with our thematic process, while we also increased the portfolio’s resilience to a weaker economy.
We increased the exposure within the Demographics theme through investments in the insurance companies Tokio Marine (Japan) and Prudential (UK) as well as the US companies Tradeweb, a trading platform, and the insurance broker Brown & Brown.
We also added Netflix within the Lifestyles theme, while we sold Intuit, ServiceNow and Advantest, which are three tech companies that have a high sensitivity to business cycles and instead purchased the more economically independent pharmaceutical distributor McKesson.
The fund was negatively affected during the period primarily by the holdings related to data centers and electrification/re-industrialization of the US, where companies such as Fluence Energy, Prysmian, ABB, and Quanta Services had an impact.
Companies with more stable earnings contributed positively during the period, which included Sprout Farmers within food products, Boston Scientific, Abbott within healthcare, as well as the platform companies Tradeweb and Jack Henry, which benefit from recurring earnings.
The strengthening of the SEK against a number of the larger currencies had a negative impact on fund returns in SEK during the quarter.