The Pictet Timber Fund (share class 'P dy GBP') is a sub-fund of the Luxembourg-registered Pictet Sicav (société d'investissement a capital variable, a European open-ended fund structure). The fund seeks capital growth by investing at least two-thirds of its total assets in a diversified portfolio of companies operating in the financing, plantation and management of forests and wooded regions and/or the processing, production and distribution of timber and other products derived from wood.
The fund principally targets companies owning forests, after having valued their assets.With a portfolio of 53 investments, which are not restricted to a specific geographical area, the fund offers a well diversified play on the timber industry.
The fund also offers significant exposure to the emerging markets growth story, with holdings here varying between 25 per cent and 30 per cent of the overall portfolio. Most of the companies are in South America, which fund manager Gabriel Micheli says benefit from the lack of wood in other emerging markets like China and India, and from the growth in their end markets.
The long-only fund benefits from daily liquidity with the minimum investment just one share. The fund can be an attractive addition to your self-invested personal pension (it is available on the Hargreaves Lansdown platform), but because it is domiciled offshore, it cannot be held within an individual savings account.
Performance since inception has been promising, but it has a higher than average total expense ratio which may be partly justified by its specialist remit.
Mr Micheli joined Pictet Asset Management in 2006 and is an investment manager in the sector & theme funds team. He is a CFA charterholder and graduated with a degree in Economics from the University of St. Gallen.
PICTET TIMBER-P dy GBP | |||
PRICE | 5,964.00p | 1 YEAR PERFORMANCE | -10.89% |
SIZE OF FUND | £129m | 6 MTHS PERFORMANCE | -19.57% |
No OF HOLDINGS | 53 | PERFORMANCE SINCE INCEPTION | 11.81% |
SET UP DATE | 29-Sep-08 | TOTAL EXPENSE RATIO | 1.94% |
MANAGER START DATE | 29-Sep-08 | MANAGEMENT FEE | 1.60% |
BETA | 1.01 | MINIMUM INVESTMENT | 1 Share |
VOLATILITY | 19.12% | MORE DETAILS | pictetfunds.co.uk |
Source: Pictet Funds
Top 10 holdings as at July 2011
Name | Percentage |
Rayonier REIT | 6.20 |
Plum Creek Timber | 5.80 |
Empresas CMPC | 5.40 |
Weyerhaeuser | 5.30 |
Svenska Cellulosa | 5.10 |
Potlatch Corp | 4.60 |
UPM Kymmene | 4.50 |
MeadWestvaco | 3.70 |
Mondi | 3.70 |
Empresas Copec | 3.10 |
Geographic Breakdown
United States | 45.40 |
Brazil | 10.40 |
Chile | 9.00 |
Finland | 6.80 |
Sweden | 6.80 |
Canada | 5.10 |
South Africa | 4.30 |
Japan | 2.10 |
Others | 7.40 |
Cash | 2.70 |