Evelyn Partners Core MPS team increases exposure to European equities

In its latest re-balance of portfolios, the Evelyn Partners Core Managed Portfolio Service (MPS) team has increased its exposure to European equities at the expense of the UK and Japan. 

The Core MPS team has also increased exposure to US government bonds as the yields available continue to look attractive. They have added to a mixture of longer dated US Treasuries with currency exposure hedged back to sterling and US Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, again hedged back to sterling. 

This move was funded by a broad decrease in the alternative assets content, with the exposure to real assets, absolute return and gold all being trimmed.  

Finally, the team exited all ETFs previously held in the portfolios and replaced them either with actively managed open-ended funds or passive trackers. The only listed holding following this rebalance is the Invesco Physical Gold ETC – an exchange traded commodity – that is held in all but the Maximum Growth portfolio. 

This has been retained as there is no other structure available to hold this important diversifying asset class in and the team believe it is important to maintain an allocation in the portfolios.  

The re-balance saw the team initiate five new holdings, including BNY Mellon US Equity Income, Evenlode Global Income, Sanlam Real Assets, Atlantic House Defined Returns and CG Dollar Fund. 

James Burns, lead manager of the Evelyn Partners Core MPS, said: “With acute war risks receding the relative attractiveness of Europe has increased and is an area that has been running at a discount to the rest of the world. We are still positive on the prospects for UK and Japanese equities on valuation grounds but on a tactical basis believe there are more catalysts driving European ones ahead.  

“The resultant mix in the portfolios enables us to take advantage of inflation continuing to decelerate in the short term whilst also providing protection should longer term inflation prove to be more persistent. Real assets, absolute return and gold all remain attractive in absolute terms, but we believe the relative attraction and diversification benefits favour a shift towards fixed income.” 

Burns continued: “We decided to exit all ETFs as we are conscious that most platforms that the Core MPS is available on have dealing charges associated with trading in listed vehicles such as these. Having recently reduced the management charge on the Core MPS to 0.20% and placed it as an ideal proposition for cost-sensitive clients, these extra charges are not helpful, particularly for those making regular withdrawals or subscriptions.

“Despite all the changes and exits of ETFs, the overall OCFs of the portfolios remain pretty much unchanged.”