Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund strategy added to Colonial First State FirstChoice Investment menu

Global equities boutique manager, Bell Asset Management today announced that its Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund’s strategy (the strategy) has been added to the Colonial First State FirstChoice Investment menu.

The strategy provides exposure to a diversified portfolio of 30-60 high quality, profitable and liquid global small and mid-cap (SMID) companies with strong franchises. It aims to deliver long term capital growth and targets a higher ESG portfolio rating than the benchmark (MSCI World SMID Cap Index). Based on Morningstar’s fund report as at 31 December 2021, the Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund is ranked No. 1 over 5 years and No.1 over 3 months in the Equity World Mid/Small Category. It has also achieved a Sustainability rating of High (based on Sustainalytics company-level analysis used in the calculation of Morningstar's Sustainability Score .

Bell Asset Management believes the appeal of global SMID cap companies continues in 2022 following strong performance by the asset class last year. And the inclusion to the FirstChoice Investment menu further reflects the growing demand we are seeing for this strategy from advisers, consultants and investors seeking to diversify away from mega cap global equities.

Bell Asset Management, Chief Investment Officer, Ned Bell, said: “Many of the SMID companies we are exposed to have come through the pandemic with efficiency gains and strong balance sheets, and, we believe we will continue to see an upside in SMID earnings over the next five years.  We believe that our investment approach of maintaining a very high-quality bias without the commensurate valuation risk will hold us in extremely good stead for what we think will be a more volatile 2022 for global markets.”

For the year to 31 December 2021, the Bell Global Emerging Companies Fund returned 29.8% outperforming its benchmark by 5.9%, net of fees, and 15.8% pa since inception (June 2016), outperforming the benchmark by 2.2% pa, net of fees.

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