In times of economic stress or extreme investor risk aversion, small-cap stocks are frequently indiscriminately sold down by investors, which has created significant headwinds for European Assets Trust (EAT) over the past 12 months. Factors like stock market volatility created by the war in Ukraine and associated secondary effects such as supply chain disruption, lower economic growth, higher inflation and more hawkish central bank activity have contributed to weak investor sentiment towards European small-cap stocks. Also, the rotation away from long-duration growth assets has presented seismic challenges for managers regardless of asset class, but especially for European smaller companies. In our November 2022 update on EAT, we made the case for backing the experienced management duo, and continue to believe that once markets focus on the fundamentals of the innovation, growth and cheapness in the market, EAT and European smaller companies are well placed to outperform again.
