Which global equity fund delivered 69% in 2023?

The S&P 500 enjoyed a strong year in 2023, jumping 23%, and while the global investment universe is bigger than the S&P 500, it serves as a strong proxy for what happened in global markets. 

The last two months of the year were exceptional, with the S&P surging 8.7% in November, and then adding another 4.6% in December. 

Against this backdrop of strong returns, the global equity fund managers in the Livewire database enjoyed exceptional performance. 

Of the 101 funds tracked, 30 of them enjoyed returns of 20% or more, 18 delivered 23% (the same as the S&P 500) or more, and eight delivered returns of 30% or more. Only 10 delivered a negative performance. 

But we're not here to talk about the losers. We're here to talk about the winners. So, which fund managers led the pack in 2023? Livewire has crunched the numbers and uncovered the five best-performing funds from the past year.

How we compiled these lists

These global equities funds are all listed on the Livewire 'Find Funds' menu (top right-hand side of your page). It should be noted that this is not an exhaustive list of all the global equities funds domiciled in Australia as there are others are not listed in Livewire's 'Find Funds' marketplace.

The filters we used were:

• In the “Fund type” box, select “Managed Funds”
• In “Asset Class”, select “global equities"
• We then manually filtered results based on 1-year returns.

The Results

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 table above simply captures the best-performing global equity funds 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.

1. Hyperion Global Growth Companies Fund (Managed Fund) (ASX: HYGG)

Hyperion Global Growth Companies Fund (Managed Fund) aims to invest in high-calibre growth-oriented businesses identified as having high quality business franchises, above-average long-term growth potential, low levels of gearing and predictable long-term earnings streams. It aims to outperform the MSCI World Accumulation Index (AUD).

Hyperion’s lead portfolio managers are Mark Arnold and Jason Orthman.

The top 5 holdings as of the end of November 2023 were:

1. Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) 12.2%
2. ServiceNow Inc (NASDAQ: NOW) 11%
3. Microsoft Corporation (NYSE: MSFT) 10.7%
4. Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) 10.3%
5. Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) 7.4%

Managed Fund

Hyperion Global Growth Companies Fund (Managed Fund)

Global Shares

View

2. ARK Global Disruptive Innovation Fund

Distributed by Yarra Capital Management, the ARK Global Disruptive Innovation Fund seeks to capture long-term outperformance through thematic exposure to global disruptive innovation.

ARK focuses solely on investing in disruptive innovation, believing the full magnitude of disruptive innovation and the investment opportunities it creates are often unrecognised or misunderstood by traditional investors. ARK believes that its consistent investment process and active management of high-conviction portfolios capitalise on rapid change and avoid industries and companies likely to be displaced by innovation.

ARK Invest's Chief Investment Officer is Catherine (Cathie) Wood. 

The top 5 holdings as of the end of November 2023 were:

1. Coinbase Global Inc (NYSE: COIN) 9.6%
2. Roku Inc (NYSE: ROKU) 9.3%
3. Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) 7.3%
4. Zoom Video Communications (NYSE: ZM) 6.8%
5. Block (NYSE: SQ) 6.0%

Managed Fund

ARK Global Disruptive Innovation Fund

Global Shares

View

3. Montaka Global Long Only Equities Fund (ASX: MOGL)

The Montaka Global Long Only Equities Fund (Managed Fund) – an Exchange Traded Managed Fund – provides access to a portfolio of 15-30 extraordinary under-valued global companies with themes unavailable on the ASX.

• Concentrated portfolio of typically 15-30 long positions
• Long-term capital growth
• Target distributions 4.5% p.a.

Managed Fund

Montaka Global Long Only Equities Fund

Global Shares

View

4. Lakehouse Global Growth Fund

The Lakehouse Global Growth Fund aims to provide long-term capital growth and to outperform the MSCI All Country World Index net total returns (AUD) (Benchmark) over rolling five-year periods (after fees and expenses but before taxes) by focusing on listed shares of mid- and large-capitalisation companies across global equity markets.

The portfolio manager is Nick Thomson.

The top 10 largest holdings as of the end of December 2023 were:

1. Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) 
   
2. MercadoLibre (NYSE: MELI)
3. ServiceNow (NASDAQ: NOW) 
4.  Visa (NASDAQ: V)
5. Constellation Software (TSE: CSU)
6. Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)
7. Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW)
8. Sansan (4443:JP)
9. CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP)
   
10. Hemnet (HEM: STO)

Managed Fund

Lakehouse Global Growth Fund

Global Shares

View

5. L1 Capital International Fund (ASX: L1IF)

The L1 Capital International Fund aims to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns over a medium to long-term investment horizon whilst lowering the risk of a permanent loss of capital. To outperform the benchmark over rolling 5-year periods (net of all fees and expenses before tax). 

The Fund looks for investment opportunities all around the world and is unconstrained by region or sector. The focus is on identifying businesses that are assessed to be high quality on a bottom-up basis, are well managed, conservatively financed, and will increase shareholder value over time. 

The portfolio manager is David Steinthal.

Among its top holdings are mega-cap tech giants Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), payments giant Mastercard (NYSE: MA) and travel website Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), as well as smaller businesses in other industries such as Graphic Packaging (NYSE: GPK) and Eagle Materials (NYSE: EXP).

Managed Fund

L1 Capital International Fund

Global Shares

View