Swiss banking group SYZ & CO has launched the Oyster Continental European Selection, a new sub-fund of its Luxembourg domiciled Oyster UCITS SICAV.
Available for investment by UK clients, Oyster Continental European Selection delivers Eric Bendahan’s long-term high-conviction stock picks in a concentrated portfolio.
Many UK investors are splitting their European equity exposure between continental Europe and the UK. The Oyster Continental European Selection fund is tailored to the needs of the UK investor base by providing a successful European equities strategy in a format that excludes UK equities. In this way, it allows UK investors control over weightings between UK and continental European equities.
Oyster Continental European Selection adopts the same process and philosophy as the Oyster European Selection and Oyster European Opportunities funds, both of which include UK equities.
The investment strategy focuses on continental European stocks demonstrating strong growth potential over five years. This time horizon allows the manager, Bendahan, to focus on longer-term stories, leading to a relatively low rate of turnover (typically around 50 to 60 per cent per annum). The suggested investment time horizon is three to five years and the reference index is the MSCI Europe ex-UK NR GBP. The fund is available in a variety of share classes: institutional and clean retail, GBP and EUR, distribution or accumulation.
Stock-picking is central to the OYSTER Continental European Selection approach and is expected to be the main source of alpha generation. Investments are based on strong bottom-up conviction, mainly within:
• Family-owned businesses with longer-term strategic vision
• Stories that are less-covered, undervalued or outside consensus
• Names with sharply diverging valuations between equities and bonds
• Companies enjoying strong growth within mature sectors
• Event-driven, turnaround stories
Ian Penrose, distribution director for the UK, says: “The launch of this exciting new fund adds further weight to our ambition to raise SYZ & CO's profile in the UK investor community and underlines our commitment to deliver solutions tailored to UK investors' needs. Eric is an extremely experienced and well-regarded fund manager, and this new fund provides access to his expertise in a format that is more suitable for our UK client base.”