Local vs global – Comparing M&G’s equity funds

Daily Investor analysed M&G Investments’ local and global equity funds and found that the local fund outperformed the global fund since inception. 

However, the global equity fund was the top performer over 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years which was partly a result of the rand’s weakening.

The local fund has consistently outperformed the Satrix Top 40 and ALSI index funds, which is good news for M&G investors.

M&G is one of South Africa’s largest asset managers, with over R200 billion in assets under management.

M&G offers four equity funds. Daily Investor looked at the company’s M&G Equity Fund and M&G Global Equity Feeder Fund, both of which have the rand as a base currency.

Local: M&G Equity Fund

M&G’s local equity fund aims to “provide broad-based exposure to shares that offer value and medium- to long-term growth”. 

88.7% of the fund’s assets are in South African equities, followed by 8.9% in foreign equities.

The fund is biased towards the communication services, basic materials and financial services sector. Its top holdings are Naspers/Prosus, MTN, Glencore, Standard Bank, and Absa.

The local equity fund has outperformed the global fund over three years and since inception and has consistently outperformed the Satrix Top 40 and ACIS indexes.

Global: M&G Global Equity Fund

M&G’s global fund aims to “provide investors with capital growth over the long-term by investing in a diversified portfolio of global equity securities”.

94.4% of this fund’s assets are allocated to foreign equities, with a bias towards the US.

Its top holdings are the Vanguard FTSE All World ETF, the M&G Global Property Fund, Apple, Microsoft, and USD cash.

Though smaller, this fund has outperformed the local fund over one, five and ten years.

This outperformance could partly be attributed to the additional capital growth the global fund receives when converting from USD to ZAR.

Fund comparison

Fund performance