OREANDA-NEWS. April 15, 2015. In March, the Parvest Equity Russia Opportunities fund received two UK Lipper Awards for 3-year and 5-year performance.

Igor Danilenko, Head of Equities of TKB BNP Paribas Investment Partners, who is the lead investment adviser for the fund, commented on the results:

Our approach based on rigorous selection of fundamentally attractive investment ideas coupled with a stable investment team allowed the fund to achieve consistently strong performance on a medium- to long-term horizon. One of the key aspects we look for is whether the company is able to generate free cash flow yield in access of cost of equity, which means that it can create added value for its shareholders. Specifically for the last three years the following positioning and changes in the portfolio helped to outperform peers and benchmark. Given our cautious stance on Russian economic growth prospects and an expected fundamentally weaker path of the ruble, a significant share of the fund since 2011 has been invested in high dividend yielding stocks of exporters, mostly within the energy sector. These companies are less exposed to ruble risks and weakening macroeconomic environment and are often able to pay high single digit or double digit dividend yields even in hard currency terms. The fund has also historically kept an underweight in state-controlled companies with low level of operational efficiency and corporate governance, namely within utilities and gas sectors. Additionally, the fund positioning has been rather flexible from a tactical perspective and was changed in response to medium-term trends throughout the period. The position in local consumer-oriented companies within retail and telecoms sector was increased in 2013 following positive consumer spending outlook, and decreased in 2014 as the ruble depreciation and contraction in consumer income put pressure on the companies’ margins.