infrastructure fund returns

David_Snowball

Take your pick:

2023 return, fund #1: 0.76%
2023 return, fund #2: 5.61
2023 return, fund #3: 9.75
2023 return, fund #4: 10.21

Variance between top and bottom performing fund in the group:
2023: 9.5%, 950 bps
2024: 6.0%, 600 bps
2025: 18%, 1800 bps

Similar variance in volatility, measured by standard deviation.

Weirdness: they're all the same fund (or ETF). Same team, same portfolio. BNY Mellon Global Infrastructure Income. Mid-cap value fund, entirely in equities, roughly 50/50 US/non, distinctly off-beat sector allocation. Some suspect the investment universe is "infrastructure and other stuff we want to call infrastructure - hospital REITs - for the sake of the income they throw off." Noticeably different expense ratios, some as high as 2.01%.

The difference appears to be entirely currency exposure.
Fund #1: British pounds
Fund #2: Euros
Fund #3: US ETF version
Fund #4: European fund, hedged back to the dollar

I need to think about this, and likely talk with the BNY Mellon folks. It's a five-star fund / ETF but Morningstar dislikes it, dismisses the ETF because the underlying fund is unimpressive (their term) and had weird manager turnover. Two long-time managers (Campbell and Lydotes). Lydotes left at the end of 2024 and was replaced by Poitrat-Rachmaninoff, who left six weeks later and was never replaced?

Hmmm ...

yogibearbull

I checked US BKGI and Euro version at M* Canada. The portfolios are quite different and that's beyond the currency effects.
BKGI https://www.morningstar.com/etfs/bats/bkgi/portfolio
Euro version https://global.morningstar.com/en-eu/investments/funds/F000010YD6/portfolio

WABAC

If you had bought GLOFX a while ago you would be laughing now to see it running ahead of the 500 these past 12 months.

I have a modest slice in the taxable I bought in 2022. Dumping it from the IRA in the quest for "simplification" was one of the dumber things I have done with my retirement investments recently.

David_Snowball

"Quite different" is hard to assess. All of the fund's 10 top holdings appear in the ETF's top 14, though the weightings are not identical. The sector weightings are typically within 1-2%, with the same six sectors are zero weight in both. 50% turnover in the ETF's 28 holdings which might translate to 1-2 new positions a month. I could imagine some "legacy" positions in the fund whose valuations were no longer compelling enough to have the ETF buy, and a position or two in the ETF (whose portfolio report is five weeks newer) not (yet) reported in the fund.
I'm not sure if BNY Mellon is willing to have a conversation, but I'll try to start one.

rforno

WABAC said:

If you had bought GLOFX a while ago you would be laughing now to see it running ahead of the 500 these past 12 months.

I have a modest slice in the taxable I bought in 2022. Dumping it from the IRA in the quest for "simplification" was one of the dumber things I have done with my retirement investments recently.

Same. I was in it probably 10 years ago and sold out ... should have just set it and forgot about it. Wish they'd make an ETF version of it, though.

bee

@WABAC
GLFOX? I let it go as well. Seems like a good sector going forward.

WABAC

bee said:

@WABAC
GLFOX? I let it go as well. Seems like a good sector going forward.

I could see it back in the IRA, but the price seems rather steep these days at a PE ratio of 15. But then I would be leaving "simplification" in the rear-view mirror.

rforno

I stand corrected! GLIX was launched last fall, which is a semi-clone of GLFOX/GLIFX.