The Orange Fund is managed by Joop Witteveen from Kemp and Peter Beijers. Both men have long experience investing in small cap Dutch equities and know the business inside out. At Delta Loyd both Jack Jonk and Alex Otto are responsible for management. They choose greater than 5% interests in undervalued companies. The fund did well.
Investors in individual equities funds may learn something from these funds. Interestingly enough both funds have Imtech position as the largest in the portfolio. And that also applies to Add Value Fund, a relative newcomer, which is managed by veteran Willem Burgers with Hilco Wiersma. These funds are favored because they are readily marketable investments rather than because they invest in small caps.
For funds that invest in Dutch and Netherlands large caps, Morning Star BNP Paribas, ING Dutch Fund, SNS Netherlands Equity Fund, Allianz Holland Property Fund and Robeco Hollands deserve a closer look. All those funds get one of our standard rating because we do not expect that they will consistently out earn the AEX.
Also these funds have managers who understand business. For example, Corne Zeijl of SNS has broad vision and extensive knowledge of the Dutch listed companies. One factor that keeps us excited about the larger funds is that they are not prisoners of the index composition. Companies which do not deviate much from the index will find it difficult to make up its costs and out- perform the index.
