Positive strides by Fortress

Fortress Fund Managers is boasting of “healthy returns” for the second quarter of 2021 when compared to last year at the height of the COVID- 19 pandemic. In its most recent public disclosure for the period ending June 30, Fortress, which has the largest funds under management on the island, said the performance came from across its equity portfolios.

“The one-year returns are even stronger, ranging from 28 per cent for the Fortress Caribbean Growth Fund to 47 per cent for our US dollar Emerging Markets Fund,” it noted. In its foreword to the assessment of its three major funds, Fortress explained: “It is important to note that these returns do not reflect any genius whatsoever on our part – they mostly have to do with how unusually weak financial markets were this time last year, and the natural tendency of share prices to eventually move back into line with underlying company fundamentals like earnings.

“It is also important to note that future years’ gains will almost certainly be (far) more moderate than the outsized gains of the last year.” It added: “With the last year’s recovery, global stocks have now returned to their pre-2020 trajectory, as though the pandemic did not happen. The same is true for company earnings, which in the United States and elsewhere have easily surpassed pre-pandemic levels, and look set to grow this year, and again the year after.

“Unfortunately, some speculative parts of the stock market now have very high valuations and risks to match, in our view.

Of its Caribbean Growth Fund, Fortress told investors that returns from Caribbean equities held their own over the last quarter with the Jamaica market providing the greatest gains of eight per cent, followed by Trinidad and Tobago of four per cent. Returns from the

Barbados market were under one per cent, coming in at 0.3 per cent. Of the Caribbean Growth Fund, Fortress noted: “In Trinidad, Massy and Guardian posted gains of 27 per cent and 29 per cent respectively, supported by strong financial reports and enthusiasm about cross-listings on the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

“In Jamaica, Sagicor Jamaica and GraceKennedy increased by 12 per cent and 14 per cent respectively while PanJam Investment, another one of the Fund’s larger holdings, registered a gain of 9 per cent. (IMC1)