The best fund in Belgian equities according to Test Purchase Invest

We track 16 funds that aim exclusively at Belgian stocks. None is as good as that of Ghent-based fund manager Value Square.

We are fans of Belgian stocks. If you use our stock selector you will find that we buy as many as 20 Belgian listed stocks. No country does better. So our equity analysts know their home market like the back of their hand and find a lot of stocks cheaply valued right now. And among the funds tracking Belgian stocks, the topper is Value Square Equity Belgium.

No portfolio item

The only reason we are not buyers of a broadly diversified fund in our equity market is because the item "Belgian equities" does not currently merit a place in our model portfolios. If we consider future potential, risk and diversification benefits within a portfolio, other investments are more appropriate.

With head and shoulders

That said, there are good funds that purely target stocks listed on the Brussels Stock Exchange. And the primus inter pares among the offerings is Value Square's fund. Over five years, the fund books an average return of 5.3% per year. That's double the average of the other funds (2.8%) and even quadruple that of the tracker Lyxor Bel 20 UCITS ETF (1.3%). Other strengths are its lower-than-average price volatility and consistency in performance. Only in terms of costs does the fund rank in the mid-range. All that adds up to a puffy report with a score of "100.

Whence the success?

The fund employs a value strategy and targets mainly companies listed below their intrinsic value. It then invests in the stock for a long time (about five years on average). Thus, the top five companies in the fund are AB InBev, X-FAB Silicon Foundries, KBC, EVS Broadcast Equipment and Van de Velde. Together, these account for nearly a third of the portfolio. What is remarkable about the portfolio is that the fund does not follow the BEL 20 index, but dares to cover the entire Belgian equity spectrum.

Buy-worthy?

As mentioned above, the category invested in is not part of our portfolio strategy. However, if you want to invest in Belgian equities via a diversified fund, then the excellently managed Value Square Equity Belgium is the product to go for.

Disclaimer

This article was written at the initiative of Test Purchase Invest and was not sponsored by Value Square, it was reproduced in full.

Read the full article on the Testaankoop invest site.