Quadriga AZ Total Return UCITS is a liquid absolute return strategy that deploys a long short approach to obtain total returns in the medium to long term.
Both long and short positions serve as a source of return generation and the fund has a long equity bias by construction. It looks to exploit disparity in valuation between stocks through a fundamental approach.
LIQUIDITY VALUE (€/SHARE)
Clase A – ISIN LU0725183734
29/04/2022
FUND SIZE
29/04/2022
What happened during the month? In April , markets had a strong downside correction led by growth stocks. Msci World finished the month -8% while Nasdaq -13.3%. Currently , we are witnessing the effect on the stock markets of a panicking FED. Higher than expected inflation led the FED changing views many times , moving market rate expectations for 2022 quite quickly from 5 hikes in February to 8 in March and 10 at end of April. Markets are starting to discount the tightening effect of rates hike compounded by a stronger dollar ( +6% in April). If we add that covid-led growth for tech stocks had been fading and that quarterly results have not been surprising on the upside as much as past quarters, we may face further downside in the tech stocks that can spread to other sectors and regions (EMFX is already feeling the pain, looking at CNH, CLP, MNX). In this environment, we stick to our positions in value stocks, trimming tactically the winners and adding to the loser. We will be careful on the net exposure if markets will get more volatile.
José María Aznar
CO-CIO
Jose Maria Aznar Botella has experience in money management since 2000. He is the co-CIO of AZ Total Return Fund, and principal partner of Poniente Capital. In addition, he is a senior advisor for Cerberus Capital Management , and serves on the board of Haya Real Estate, the largest special servicer in Spain with over 30 billion AUM.
From 2002-2009 he worked as a senior analyst for SLS Management ($1Bn AUM), a New York based Hedge Fund, responsible for investments in a wide set of sectors in Europe and the US consumer sector. Prior to that he was an associate consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in both the Madrid and the New York offices. From 2010-2012, Jose Maria was a professor in the economics Faculty of Universidad San Pablo CEU, teaching the subjects of Management of Financial Companies and Securities Analysis. Jose Maria has a BA in Business Administration by the Colegio Universitario de Estudios Financieros (CUNEF).
