The Denker Global Opportunities Portfolio has had a solid start to 2026, building on strong relative performance in 2025 versus smaller-cap markets globally. Alongside this, we are pleased to highlight a new Frankfurt listing for this actively managed certificate (AMC), providing investors with the opportunity to access the strategy directly offshore.
Following a strong 2025 for the Denker Global Opportunities Portfolio, the portfolio has started 2026 on a positive note. As shown in the chart below, year to date, the portfolio is up versus the MSCI World Mid Cap Index and the MSCI World Index.
Another exciting development is the listing of this actively managed portfolio on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange during December, making it available to investors in US dollars, in addition to its existing rand-denominated listing on the JSE. This is an identical portfolio to our JSE listing but offers investors the ability to invest in US dollars. The USD-denominated portfolio has also performed well year to date, in USD.
Year-to-date performance as at 6 February 2026
Source: FactSet, UBS, 6 February 2026
The portfolio invests in small- and mid-capitalisation shares in global developed markets.
Click here for a review of 2025.
Key contributors
In absolute terms, key contributors to performance year to date have been our positions in Beazley, a specialty property and casualty insurer; Ferguson Enterprises, a US distributor of plumbing supplies, HVAC equipment and related building products; and PACCAR Inc., a US trucking and trucking-equipment business.
- Beazley shares rose strongly following a take-out offer from Zurich Insurance Group announced on 16 January. The most recent offer values Beazley at approximately GBP8 billion, representing a 62.8% premium to the company’s pre-deal market capitalisation. Beazley is an excellent specialty underwriting business with a long track record of shareholder value creation. While we have followed the company for many years at Denker Capital, we only initiated a position in February 2025, having historically found the valuation unattractive. We believe this investment highlights our experience in global markets, our ability to identify mispriced smaller companies within our circle of competence, and our willingness to act decisively when opportunities arise.
- Ferguson Enterprises has also added to performance, up 18% in USD terms (as at 6 February). Homebuilding and housing-related stocks have benefited from being perceived as relatively defensive amid current concerns around AI and software disruption. While these businesses increasingly use AI in areas such as pricing and logistics, their core activities face limited near-term disruption. Tech end-market exposure is limited (with data centers a modest exception), making the current rerating an interesting reversal of last year, when low tech exposure was a headwind rather than a support.
- PACCAR shares have performed well on a similar theme to Ferguson, up 16% in USD terms (year to date). In addition, we are beginning to see early signs of recovery in the global trucking market, including improving freight rates and rising purchasing managers’ indices, suggesting that real-world industrial sentiment is turning more positive.
Top detractors
Our top and most meaningful detractors have, unsurprisingly, been our exposure to software and software-related names. Shares of vertical market software business Constellation Software are down 25% year to date, while SS&C Technologies, a software and tech-enabled service provider to financial services and healthcare industries, has declined 14% year to date. Although these positions are modest in size, the magnitude of the share price moves has impacted returns.
While we believe that AI remains a very real threat to many industries, we remain comfortable with our positioning in the sector. As a reminder, the portfolio remains significantly underweight US exposure – and US technology in particular – relative to both the MSCI World and MSCI World Mid Cap indices. This positioning is a direct outcome of our bottom-up investment process. As markets indiscriminately sell assets perceived as non-AI beneficiaries, we remain actively engaged and ready to deploy capital where opportunities emerge.
Outlook
Fundamentally, we remain positive on the long-term outlook for the portfolio. Our investment thesis around high-quality smaller companies remains intact, and we believe these businesses are well positioned to compound shareholder value at a faster rate than broader markets over time. Starting valuations remain attractive, both on an absolute basis and relative to still highly concentrated global equity markets. More broadly, it is encouraging to see evidence of market breadth improving, with the portfolio outperforming as leadership begins to widen.
Please feel free to reach out to discuss in more detail or to find further information about our recent offshore listing of the Denker Global Opportunities Portfolio.
The listing identifiers of the JSE- and Frankfurt-listings are included below.
Please contact us at investorrelations@denkercapital.com for more information. Alternatively, click on the links below for the latest brochures.
