Las acciones estadounidenses terminaron abril ligeramente al alza gracias a que la publicación de resultados mejores de lo esperado en el primer trimestre – a pesar de partir de niveles más bajos- ayudaron a atemperar los temores de recesió por ahora. Los consumidores mantuvieron su Fortaleza, resistiendo a la inflación persistente y otros factores económicos adversos. Entre las temáticas positivas de la temporada de resultados del primer trimestre se incluyeron los resultados mejores de lo esperado de la banca regional, los sólidos resultados de las tecnológicas de gran capitalización y mejores tendencias en torno al control de costes, inventarios y cadena de suministro.
Aunque durante el mes se vio algo de estabilidad para la banca regional, abril terminó con los reguladores liquidando First Republic Bank (FRC) y firmando un acuerdo para vender la mayoría de sus operaciones a JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM). La quiebra de First Republic Bank tuvo más que ver con una reacción atrasada a la crisis de marzo más que con una nueva fase de la crisis global bancaria. Ahora, First Republic Bank se quedará para la historia como el segundo banco estadounidense de mayor tamaño (por activos) an collapsar, solo por detrás de Washington Mutual, que quebró durante la crisis financiera de 2008.
La Reserva Federal subió los tipos otro 0,25% durante la última reunión del FOMC, el 3 de mayo. Los datos económicos de marzo, que se publicaron en abril, mostraron signos de desaceleración de la inflación, pero manteniéndose bien por encima del objetivo de la Fed. Las actas de la última reunión de la Fed sugirieron que “una recesión suave” era posible, y que el enfoque de la Fed es sobre “niveles de inflación inaceptablemente altos”. Paradójicamente, el colapso de First Republic ayudó a la Fed a mantener su agenda de subidas de tipos en mayo.
El comportamiento del M&A en abril fue desigual, puesto que muchas operaciones progresaron hacia su finalización, pero otros acuerdos experimentaron contratiempos. El más destacado tuvo que ver con la adquisición de Activision por Microsoft por 74.000 millones de dólares, que fue rechazada por la Autoridad para los Mercados y la Competencia de Reino Unido (CMA por sus siglas en inglés), que afirmó que la adquisición daría a Microsoft una posición dominante en el mercado naciente de videojuegos en la nube. Microsoft ofreció numerosas garantías a la CMA para disipar sus dudas, incluyendo el compromiso de poner los títulos actuales y futuros de Activision a disposición de los servicios de juego en la nube de la competencia. Microsoft y Activision han recurrido la decisión de la CMA. Otras operaciones sí que cerraron en abril, incluyendo la adquisición por 6.000 millones de dólares en efectivo y acciones de la minera de oro Yamana por Pan American Silver y Agnico Eagle Mines, así como la adquisición por 2.000 millones de dólares del fabricante de fármacos para la diabetes Provention Bio por Sanofi. Las nuevas operaciones anunciadas en abril incluyen la adquisición de National Instruments por parte de Emerson Electric por 60 dólares la acción, o 8.000 millones, y la adquisición por parte de Merck de Prometheus Biosciences por 200 dólares la acción, en torno a unos 10.000 millones de dólares.
El mercado de convertibles cedió ligeramente en abril, al pesar sobre los mercados los temores a una recesión, la subida continuada de los tipos de interés y una visibilidad cauta. Las emisiones siguieron llegando con cuentagotas, pero abril suele ser un mes lento en el mercado primario de convertibles, ya que las empresas suelen anunciar sus beneficios. Hemos seguido viendo a empresas que recompraron convertibles, un tipo de operación que incrementa los beneficios y es positiva para el crédito. Esta dinámica ha favorecido a algunos valores convertibles.
La oportunidad actual en convertibles sigue viniendo de las emisiones en renta fija equivalentes, que están cotizando con rendimientos atractivos a vencimiento superiores a nuestra rentabilidad esperada a largo plazo. Con frecuencia, son convertibles con varios años de vencimiento que esperamos se incrementen a la par con el paso del tiempo. Aunque este no es el perfil en el que nos hemos centrado históricamente, los encontramos atractivos para el fondo en este entorno. Estos convertibles tendrían un potencial bajista limitado de aquí en adelante y esperamos que se comporten mejor que las acciones en un mercado plano, bajista o volátil.
Tribuna de Michael Gabelli, director general de Gabelli & Partners
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
Disclaimer:
The information and any opinions have been obtained from or are based on sources believed to be reliable but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. No responsibility can be accepted for any consequential loss arising from the use of this information. The information is expressed at its date and is issued only to and directed only at those individuals who are permitted to receive such information in accordance with the applicable statutes. In some countries the distribution of this publication may be restricted. It is your responsibility to find out what those restrictions are and observe them.
Some of the statements in this presentation may contain or be based on forward looking statements, forecasts, estimates, projections, targets, or prognosis (“forward looking statements”), which reflect the manager’s current view of future events, economic developments and financial performance. Such forward looking statements are typically indicated by the use of words which express an estimate, expectation, belief, target or forecast. Such forward looking statements are based on an assessment of historical economic data, on the experience and current plans of the investment manager and/or certain advisors of the manager, and on the indicated sources. These forward looking statements contain no representation or warranty of whatever kind that such future events will occur or that they will occur as described herein, or that such results will be achieved by the fund or the investments of the fund, as the occurrence of these events and the results of the fund are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The actual portfolio, and thus results, of the fund may differ substantially from those assumed in the forward looking statements. The manager and its affiliates will not undertake to update or review the forward looking statements contained in this presentation, whether as result of new information or any future event or otherwise.
