INVL Russia ex-government Equity Subfund wins top award in Germany among Russia equity funds

The INVL Russia ex-government Equity Subfund operated by INVL Asset Management, one of Lithuania’s leading asset management companies, earned top honours at the Thomson Reuters Lipper Fund Awards in Germany for five-year performance among funds that invest in Russian equities. A total of 21 investment funds were assessed in that classification, with the winner being the one with the highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return (Effective Return) value over the specified period.

“This award shows that the investment results we achieved stood out among the other funds that invest in this region,” said Vaidotas Rūkas, Chief Investment Officer at INVL Asset Management. For 2013-2017, the INVL Russia ex-government Equity Subfund earned a return of 20.4 per cent, while the return on the fund’s benchmark index over the same period was a negative 17.2 per cent. In 2017, due to geopolitical factors for the region, the fund’s return was a negative 2.3 per cent, while the return on its benchmark index was a negative 12.1 per cent.

The manager of the fund, Dainius Bložė, attributed its performance to steady work to identify undervalued stocks. “Our understanding of the market and our attention to what leads to corporate recoveries both paid off. The fund gives priority to mid-size companies with a good management team, since they’re more flexible than big companies and often have more potential to grow value for shareholders. The fund also gives no less importance to risk management – diversification of investments across sectors and putting prudent limits on potential losses for individual positions,” Bložė said.

For more than three decades and in over 20 countries worldwide, the Thomson Reuters Lipper Fund Awards have honoured funds and fund management firms that excel in achieving consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. Using a proprietary methodology, it recognizes funds and fund families in corresponding classifications for their results over periods of three, five and ten years. Those funds are assessed which are registered for distribution in the relevant country at the end of the year under assessment.

This is not the first time that fund manager Dainius Bložė has earned recognition for the performance of the INVL Russia ex-government Equity Subfund, which launched in October 2010. The international asset management analysis serviceCitywire acknowledged the fund in 2016. Citywire said Bložėconsistently outperformed peers in the Russian equity markets from August 2011 to August 2016, achieving nearly double the average return of the 34 fund managers active in Russian equities.

The INVL Russia ex-government Equity Subfund allocates its investments among the 15 to 25 most attractive Russian stocks identified by the fund’s managers. In investing, it seeks to achieve a maximum return on investments in the shares of Russian companies and assumes a large fluctuation risk. At the end of March 2018 the fund had 13.4 million euros of assets under management.

INVL Asset Management operates six mutual funds, most of which are distributed not only in Lithuania, but also in Latvia, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. It has been managing investment funds since 2004 and specializes in picking stocks and bonds in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. According to Bank of Lithuania data, the company ranked first in Lithuania at the end of 2017 for number of participants of mutual funds registered in the country, with a market share of 83.7 per cent. A total of 5 910 participants had chosen investment funds operated by INVL Asset Management.

INVL Asset Management, which is part of the Invalda INVL group, also manages nine pension funds as well as investment portfolios and alternative investments. Over 185 000 clients in Lithuania and Latvia and international investors have entrusted Invalda INVL group companies with managing more than 575 million euros of assets.

More information about Thomson Reuters Lipper fund awards in Germany – here.