Performance review 9M 2017
Perfomance 9M 2017:
In the first 9 months of 2017, the blog portfolio gained +18,1% +18,5% (including dividends, no taxes) against 15,1% for the Benchmark (Eurostoxx50 (Perf.Ind) (25%), Eurostoxx small 200 (25%), DAX (30%), MDAX (20%)). Since inception, the score is now +178,2% 179,1% vs. 95,1% for the benchmark. The full details (and graph) as always on the performance page. (adjustments for TGV Partners final 30.09. valuation)
In the third quarter, the portfolio underperformed the benchmark significantly (+1,8% vs. +5,33%). Several of my larger positions did not very well in this quarter.
Some other funds that I follow have performed as follows in 9M 2017:
Partners Fund TGV: +16,93%
Profitlich/Schmidlin: +7,68%
Squad European Convictions +24,09%
Squad Aguja +11,36%
Ennismore European Smaller Cos 4,79% (in EUR)
Frankfurter Aktienfonds für Stiftungen +12,89%
Evermore Global Value +7,33%
Greiff Special Situation +12,00%
Paladin One +16,02%
Perfomance attribution 9M
The top 10 contributors to performance YTD 2017 were the following positions:
| Weight 12/16 | Perf | Contr. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tonnellerie Frere Paris | 7,4% | 45,50% | 3,4% |
| SAPEC | 7,0% | 24,00% | 1,7% |
| Stada | 5,0% | 33,50% | 1,7% |
| G. Perrier | 4,3% | 24,55% | 1,0% |
| Van Lanschot | 2,2% | 42,80% | 1,0% |
| Miko | 5,1% | 18% | 0,9% |
| Dom Security | 3,5% | 23,35% | 0,8% |
| Thermador | 2,9% | 27,30% | 0,8% |
| Partners Fund | 5,2% | 14,91% | 0,8% |
| Gagfah | 3,8% | 20,06% | 0,8% |
The only real negative contributors in 2017 so far were:
| Weight 12/16 | Perf | Contr | |
|---|---|---|---|
| TGS Nopec | 3,8% | -2,44% | -0,1% |
| Wholefoods | 3,0% | -4,55% | -0,1% |
| Silver Chef | 2,5% | -14,33% | -0,4% |
Q3 Transactions
Q3 was a quite busy quarter, especially due to several special situations. I sold Stada and Sapec in early July, both with very decent gains. Also in July I sold Vonovia and bought into Whole Foods and Metro as a spin-off case. I also increased my Electrica stake.
In August, I sold Lloyds and bought Record Plc as a new position. I also increased my Admiral stake. The Whole Food special situation was closed out with a small loss due to the Dollar in August. In September I first increased and then decreased Silver Chef with a loss as I had missed something in the annual report.
Finally I sold Ashmore in September and MicroFocus which I got as “spin off marger dividend” from my HPE special situation investment.
At the end of Q3, I owned 21 positions and cash was ~12% of the portfolio. Details as always on the portfolio page.
For the record: the “1 transaction per month limit” doesn’t work well for the speical situation bucket as I cannot really control the timing especially of the exits. For the “Core Value” part I sold only Ashmore and bought one with Record Plc, so this was within my limit.
value and opportunity 
Great to see this, thanks! For what it’s worth I have a very similar performance over that period from an entirely different set of stocks but a similar philosophy – your results make me wonder how much of mine are due to skill vs. overall market 🙂
One thing that might be interesting. You mention Whole Foods was a loss due to the dollar. I’m UK based and have moved all my investments out of the pound because I’m scared of Brexit and the damage it will do to the currency. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to track performance – as I did this before the referendum, my results in GBP were astronomical – but it annoyed me that the high IRRs were showing money I hadn’t lost, rather than money I’ve made. In the end I decided that the least worst way to track performance was to come up with my own currency basket (USD, EUR, CNY, GBP). This basket tries to represent currencies I actually end up consuming, and therefore tracking gains against my own currency seems a sensible thing. For you it looks like you’re mostly in Euros so this might not be worth the effort – but if you do decide to invest more abroad something to consider.
You mention decreasing your holding in Silver Chef after having missed something in the annual report.
I’m curious what it was that you found (if that is something you’re willing to share).
The receivables, especially the overdues looked not very good. There seem to be good explanations (GoGetta) but that made me a little bit more cautious.
You are right. As a small cap oriented investor I could have done better. But I don’t complain. I think I am relatively well protected to the downside which of course costs some of the upside.
Despite sub-optimal, it is still an excellence performance. (one cannot always win, we learn at school, right?)
I am impressed about Tonellerie, continued outperformance. Is quite incredible.
I gave a look at the Squad European Convictions, and saw they have STEF, which reports quite nice financials. Worth a check