The Covid-19 crash was a turning point for the Perpetua SCI Equity fund. Before 2020, the portfolio had delivered mixed performance but since then, it has been in its category’s top quartile.
Co-manager Lonwabo Maqubela said they used the pandemic to buy undervalued assets in a gamble that eventually paid off. ‘There was a bit of “higher-grading” of the portfolio,’ he told Citywire South Africa.
‘When Covid happened, a lot of companies got similarly sold off. We were doing a lot of relative comparisons of companies in the same sector and typically choosing the better quality one. That subsequently did contribute to our relative performance.’