The International Growth Fund was up +3.3% vs the benchmark (S&P Global LargeMidCap Index, 50% hedged into NZD) which was up +2.7%.

Meta (+18%) posted good quarterly earnings in January, exceeding expectations on revenue, numbers of users, profit margins and earnings for the quarter. Investments in AI to date are paying off, with its AI automation ad product, Advantage+, growing 70% and is $20b revenue in size. Meta continues to show they have a number of different avenues to continue driving growth. It is beginning to test how to monetise its new app Threads, and WhatsApp, while small, is growing quickly and also now has 100m monthly active users in the US.

January saw strong performance for several of our medical device names including Boston Scientific (+15%), Dexcom (+12%) and Intuitive Surgical (+10%). Boston and Intuitive reported continued strong results for Q4 for as they both see high demand for their innovative new medical devices. Boston’s Farapulse device is quickly becoming the leading treatment for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. Intuitive is seeing success in the early roll-out of its next generation DV5 surgical robot. Dexcom continues to show progress in turning the business around following several execution missteps in 2024; with Q4 revenues coming in ahead of expectations and growth accelerating into 2025.

Greggs (-23%) shares fell sharply in January after the company reported a weak fourth quarter result. Same store sales growth was weaker than expected and management expect the weak trading environment to continue through the first half of 2025. Greggs remains committed to its store roll-out targets and continue to invest in supply chain and manufacturing capacity to support the larger store count. Greggs has been taking market share in the UK food-to-go sector by improving its customer value proposition through expanding the menu, offering more delivery options and extending opening hours to capture evening traffic.