La bolsa estadounidense marcó un nuevo máximo histórico a mediados de noviembre antes de experimentar una fuerte corrección, que empezó cuando se identificó Ómicron, la nueva variante de COVID-19, por lo que terminó el mes con ligeras pérdidas. Otros factores de fondo fueron las disrupciones en la cadena de suministro, la escasez de mano de obra, un dólar más fuerte y la caída del precio del petróleo y del bono estadounidense. Jerome Powell, presidente de la Fed, había calificado previamente la inflación al alza como “transitoria”, pero ahora dice que “es probablemente un buen momento para retirar esa calificación”, acortando la agenda del “tapering” de bonos.
Citando los Insight del economista Gary Shilling, “históricamente, no ha habido escasez global de oferta salvo en periodos de guerra, por lo que el episodio actual -resultado de los cuellos de botella temporales en las cadenas de producción y de las dificultades para reabrir las economías-, es inusual. Pero la reacción de los consumidores y los negocios a la misma no lo es, ya que se están apresurando para hacer pedidos y comprar en anticipación a nuevas escaseces e incrementos de precios en una suerte de ciclo de profecías autocumplidas”.
También destacamos otra nota, del economista Ed Hyman, sobre los valores que mejor lo están hacienda en bolsa vs el tapering de la Fed: “Los últimos tres grandes máximos del S&P sucedieron después de seis subidas en los tipos de interés hasta el 6,5% en el 2000; después de 14 subidas, hasta el 5,25% en 2007; y después de 9 subidas, hasta el 2,5%, en 2018”.
La actividad de fusiones y adquisiciones (M&A por sus siglas en inglés) mantuvo su fortaleza en noviembre, con la incorporación a la cartera de nuevas operaciones recién anunciadas, como la adquisición por parte de American Tower del operador de centros de datos CoreSite Realty por 10.000 millones de dólares; la compra de la biofarmacéutica Dicerna Pharmaceuticals por Novo Nordisk por 3.000 millones de dólares; las compras de GIC y CPP de la compañía de antivirus McAffe por 15.000 millones; la adquisición de KKR y GIP del operador de centros de datos CyrusOne por 15.000 millones de dólares; y la adquisición por parte de DuPont de la compañía de materiales especiales Rogers Corp por 5.000 millones. Entre los acuerdos que se cerraron en noviembre se incluyen la compra por parte de Merck de Acceleron Pharma por 11.000 millones, la compra de Trillium Therapeutics por Pfizer, por 2.000 millones de dólares, y la adquisición de Domtar por Paper Excellence por 3.000 millones.
Al respecto, destacamos del artículo del Wall Street Journal Buyout Boom Gains Steam in Record Year for Private Equity: “Los fondos de private equity han anunciado recompras de acciones récord de 944.400 millones de dólares en Estados Unidos en lo que va de año, 2,5 veces el volumen registrado en el mismo periodo del año pasado y más del doble respecto al máximo previo de 2007… El mercado de OPVs también está en niveles récord, y el volumen de fusiones en EE.UU. es el doble del visto el año pasado”.
Finalmente, en el segmento de convertibles, de manera similar a lo que sucedió en el primer trimestre hemos visto múltiples contratos en el mercado, afectando de manera desproporcionada a las acciones con sesgo ‘growth’. Por lo general, el mercado de convertibles está más orientado al ‘growth’, por lo que se produjo un poco de debilidad al cierre del mes. A pesar de ello, las emisiones repuntaron significativamente, y esperamos que el nivel global de emisiones en el año se quede justo por encima del cierre del año pasado. Esto expande nuestro universo de inversión, y es signo de un mercado sano.
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To access our proprietary value investment methodology, and dedicated merger arbitrage portfolio we offer the following UCITS Funds in each discipline:
GAMCO MERGER ARBITRAGE
GAMCO Merger Arbitrage UCITS Fund, launched in October 2011, is an open-end fund incorporated in Luxembourg and compliant with UCITS regulation. The team, dedicated strategy, and record dates back to 1985. The objective of the GAMCO Merger Arbitrage Fund is to achieve long-term capital growth by investing primarily in announced equity merger and acquisition transactions while maintaining a diversified portfolio. The Fund utilizes a highly specialized investment approach designed principally to profit from the successful completion of proposed mergers, takeovers, tender offers, leveraged buyouts and other types of corporate reorganizations. Analyzes and continuously monitors each pending transaction for potential risk, including: regulatory, terms, financing, and shareholder approval.
Merger investments are a highly liquid, non-market correlated, proven and consistent alternative to traditional fixed income and equity securities. Merger returns are dependent on deal spreads. Deal spreads are a function of time, deal risk premium, and interest rates. Returns are thus correlated to interest rate changes over the medium term and not the broader equity market. The prospect of rising rates would imply higher returns on mergers as spreads widen to compensate arbitrageurs. As bond markets decline (interest rates rise), merger returns should improve as capital allocation decisions adjust to the changes in the costs of capital.
Broad Market volatility can lead to widening of spreads in merger positions, coupled with our well-researched merger portfolios, offer the potential for enhanced IRRs through dynamic position sizing. Daily price volatility fluctuations coupled with less proprietary capital (the Volcker rule) in the U.S. have contributed to improving merger spreads and thus, overall returns. Thus our fund is well positioned as a cash substitute or fixed income alternative.
Our objectives are to compound and preserve wealth over time, while remaining non-correlated to the broad global markets. We created our first dedicated merger fund 32 years ago. Since then, our merger performance has grown client assets at an annualized rate of approximately 10.7% gross and 7.6% net since 1985. Today, we manage assets on behalf of institutional and high net worth clients globally in a variety of fund structures and mandates.
Class I USD – LU0687944552
Class I EUR – LU0687944396
Class A USD – LU0687943745
Class A EUR – LU0687943661
Class R USD – LU1453360825
Class R EUR – LU1453361476
GAMCO ALL CAP VALUE
The GAMCO All Cap Value UCITS Fund launched in May, 2015 utilizes Gabelli’s its proprietary PMV with a Catalyst™ investment methodology, which has been in place since 1977. The Fund seeks absolute returns through event driven value investing. Our methodology centers around fundamental, research-driven, value based investing with a focus on asset values, cash flows and identifiable catalysts to maximize returns independent of market direction. The fund draws on the experience of its global portfolio team and 35+ value research analysts.
GAMCO is an active, bottom-up, value investor, and seeks to achieve real capital appreciation (relative to inflation) over the long term regardless of market cycles. Our value-oriented stock selection process is based on the fundamental investment principles first articulated in 1934 by Graham and Dodd, the founders of modern security analysis, and further augmented by Mario Gabelli in 1977 with his introduction of the concepts of Private Market Value (PMV) with a Catalyst™ into equity analysis. PMV with a Catalyst™ is our unique research methodology that focuses on individual stock selection by identifying firms selling below intrinsic value with a reasonable probability of realizing their PMV’s which we define as the price a strategic or financial acquirer would be willing to pay for the entire enterprise. The fundamental valuation factors utilized to evaluate securities prior to inclusion/exclusion into the portfolio, our research driven approach views fundamental analysis as a three pronged approach: free cash flow (earnings before, interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, minus the capital expenditures necessary to grow/maintain the business); earnings per share trends; and private market value (PMV), which encompasses on and off balance sheet assets and liabilities. Our team arrives at a PMV valuation by a rigorous assessment of fundamentals from publicly available information and judgement gained from meeting management, covering all size companies globally and our comprehensive, accumulated knowledge of a variety of sectors. We then identify businesses for the portfolio possessing the proper margin of safety and research variables from our deep research universe.
Class I USD – LU1216601648
Class I EUR – LU1216601564
Class A USD – LU1216600913
Class A EUR – LU1216600673
Class R USD – LU1453359900
Class R EUR – LU1453360155
GAMCO CONVERTIBLE SECURITIES
GAMCO Convertible Securities’ objective is to seek to provide current income as well as long term capital appreciation through a total return strategy by investing in a diversified portfolio of global convertible securities.
The Fund leverages the firm’s history of investing in dedicated convertible security portfolios since 1979.
The fund invests in convertible securities, as well as other instruments that have economic characteristics similar to such securities, across global markets (but the fund will not invest in contingent convertible notes). The fund may invest in securities of any market capitalization or credit quality, including up to 100% in below investment grade or unrated securities, and may from time to time invest a significant amount of its assets in securities of smaller companies. Convertible securities may include any suitable convertible instruments such as convertible bonds, convertible notes or convertible preference shares.
By actively managing the fund and investing in convertible securities, the investment manager seeks the opportunity to participate in the capital appreciation of underlying stocks, while at the same time relying on the fixed income aspect of the convertible securities to provide current income and reduced price volatility, which can limit the risk of loss in a down equity market.
Class I USD LU2264533006
Class I EUR LU2264532966
Class A USD LU2264532701
Class A EUR LU2264532610
Class R USD LU2264533345
Class R EUR LU2264533261
Class F USD LU2264533691
Class F EUR LU2264533428
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