Top performing funds: How 2 global equities managers dominated in FY24

It’s been an extraordinary financial year for global investors – particularly those with US exposure. After all, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100 finished the year at record highs – no guesses as to why.

But, it wasn’t the only bright spot in the global market, with the MSCI World returning 19.8% for the financial year. It’s also been a positive year for the often volatile emerging markets dealing with a strong US dollar – the MSCI Emerging Markets index returned 12.18% for the year.

Japan, for example, has turned its fortunes in the last year, while Taiwan is riding high thanks to its AI and tech plays (stalwart TSMC recently hit US$1 trillion in market capitalisation). India continues to strengthen and there are signs that the challenges for China are starting to ease.

While tech has been the dominant theme of FY24, it may surprise investors to learn that another major global theme was behind the top-performing global equity fund for 2024.

Of equal interest is the fact that the Top 5 was dominated by just two fund managers: Munro Partners and GQG Partners, generating an average of 37.5% in returns for the financial year. It’s also a very different list to what we saw 6 months ago, or this time last year – only Plato Global Alpha Fund and Lakehouse Global Growth Fund from FY23’s top 10 remain. It’s a timely reminder that past performance is no guarantee of future performance.

The key lesson to note – growth continues to be on top when it comes to performance.

So who were the top-performing global equity funds of FY24?

How we compile these lists

We have pulled our performance numbers from Morningstar.

The funds are all listed on Livewire’s Find Funds menu (top right-hand side of your webpage). Needless to say, this is not an exhaustive list of all global equity funds available in the Australian market.

The filters we used are:

• In the “Fund type” box, select “MANAGED FUND”
• In the “Asset class” box, select “SHARES – GLOBAL”
• We then manually filtered results based on 1-year returns.

It’s worth noting that the results can change again based on 5-year returns and it’s worth looking at longer-term performance across cycles when researching funds or making investment decisions. Of the top 10, 3 funds have a less than 5-year track record, and 2 have less than 3 years worth of track record.

Top 10 performing global equity funds

Note: Fund performance is typically viewed over longer timeframes than one year (i.e. three-year and five-year rolling periods). Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future return. The tables above simply capture the best-performing global funds, in their respective categories, for the past 12 months. All data is supplied by Morningstar. If you would like to conduct your own research into top-performing funds, you can do so by clicking here.

Key points from the top-performers

Munro Partners and GQG Partners dominated the top five. Both are growth-focused investment managers, but interestingly, both incorporate an ESG lens within their philosophy. Munro also nominates a focus on structural growth trends as a key part of their approach.

All of the top 5 included standout US tech Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) in their top holdings, while Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) featured in 4 of the top funds.

What may come as a surprise to investors is that a climate-focused fund topped the list. 

There has been considerable and increasing investment into the green transition off the back of the energy crisis, along with an increased push for companies to consider their impact on the environment and climate within their activities. Many fund managers have talked before on Livewire about “following the money” and climate change has regularly been referenced as part of that. 

The strategy behind the fund is still growth-oriented, in a market environment that is rewarding growth and the underlying names may not initially strike you as being standard ‘green’ picks – that’s to say there’s some cross-over there with the biggest equity names of the last year.

1. Munro Climate Change Leaders

The Fund aims to invest in the global growth companies best-positioned to champion and win from decarbonisation. It holds 15-25 positions. It aims to outperform the MSCI All Country World (Net) Index in $A over a 5-7 year period.

The fund is managed by a team of 5 including climate co-leads Nick Griffin (CIO) and James Tsinidis, along with portfolio managers Kieran Moore, Jeremy Gibson and Qiao Ma.

The top 5 holdings as of the end of May 2024 were:

1. Constellation – 9.7%
2. NVIDIA – 9.1%
3. Nexterra – 5.7%
4. Quanta – 5.6%
5. Comfort Systems – 5.6%

Managed Fund

Munro Climate Change Leaders

Global Shares

View

2. Munro Concentrated Global Growth Fund

The Fund aims to maximise long-term capital appreciation by investing in a concentrated portfolio of 20-40 global growth-oriented equities. It excludes Australia. It has a hurdle for performance fees of outperforming the higher of either the MSCI World (ex-Australia) Total Return Net Index in Australian dollars or the annualised yield of the Australian government bond. The Fund aims to be fully invested in equities.

The fund is managed by CIO Nick Griffin and portfolio managers Kieran Moore, Jeremy Gibson, Qiao Ma and James Tsinidis.

The top 5 holdings as of the end of May 2024 were:

1. Nvidia – 9.9%
2. Microsoft – 8.2%
3. Amazon – 6.6%
4. Constellation – 5.8%
5. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co – 5%

Managed Fund

Munro Concentrated Global Growth

Global Shares

View

3. GQG Partners Global Equity Fund

The Fund seeks to invest in high-quality, attractively priced companies exhibiting competitive advantages and future growth prospects in both developed and emerging markets. It seeks long-term capital appreciation and currently holds 40 companies. It aims to outperform the MCSI All Country World Index (ex-Tobacco).

The fund managers include CIO Rajiv Jain, portfolio managers Brian Kersmanc and Sudarshan Murthy CFA along with deputy portfolio manager Siddharth Jain.

The top 5 holdings as of the end of May 2024 were:

1. Nvidia – 8.1%
2. Meta Platforms – 6.7%
3. Novo Nordisk – 6.6%
4. Eli Lilly and Co – 6.4%
5. Microsoft Corp – 4%

Managed Fund

GQG Partners Global Equity Fund

Global Shares

View

4. GQG Partners Emerging Markets Equity Fund

The Fund seeks to invest in high-quality companies with attractively-priced future growth prospects in emerging markets. It currently holds 70 companies in the portfolio. It aims to outperform the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (ex-Tobacco).

The fund managers include CIO Rajiv Jain, portfolio managers Brian Kersmanc and Sudarshan Murthy CFA along with deputy portfolio manager Siddharth Jain.

The top 5 holdings as of the end of May 2024 were:

1. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co – 9.1%
2. Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras – 6.1%
3. Nvidia – 4.8%
4. Adani Enterprises – 3.2%
5. Adani Power – 3.2%

Managed Fund

GQG Partners Emerging Markets Equity Fund

Global Shares

View

5. Munro Global Growth Fund

This Fund combines the concentrated portfolio of global growth equities with capital preservation tools such as increased cash levels, shorts, put options, currency hedging and equity exposure management. It holds 30-50 positions. It has a performance fee hurdle of the higher of either the 10-year Australian Government Bond Rate plus 3.5% or 6%pa.

The fund is managed by CIO Nick Griffin and portfolio managers Kieran Moore, Jeremy Gibson, Qiao Ma and James Tsinidis.

The top 5 holdings as of the end of May 2024 were:

1. Nvidia – 9.9%
2. Microsoft – 7.1%
3. Amazon – 6.8%
4. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co – 5%
5. Constellation – 4.8%

Managed Fund

Munro Global Growth Fund

Global Shares

View

Catch insights from the rest of the series here:

Fixed Income: 

Funds

Top Performing Funds: The bond funds that crushed it in FY24

View