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It’s in all probability honest to say that VT Holland Advisors Fairness Fund isn’t instantly acquainted to a number of British buyers. On condition that the fund may be very a lot on the small facet (solely £39.3m), maybe that’s unsurprising. However VT Holland Advisors holds a handful of thrilling progress shares, and has delivered glorious outperformance.
Run by Andrew Hollingworth, it has returned 77.8% for the three-year interval to 30 June. That destroys its Funding Affiliation World Sector benchmark (25.7%), and in addition beats each the FTSE 100 and S&P 500.
Serving to drive a few of the current portfolio outperformance has been a pair of prime progress shares (which I additionally personal). Let’s take a better have a look at them.
A snowball on the prime of a hill
The primary inventory is Nu Holdings (NYSE:NU), which is the agency behind Brazilian digital lender Nubank. It’s up 35% yr to this point.
Nubank was constructed from the bottom up as a digital-only financial institution, with no bodily branches. It provides clients far superior and cheaper providers than the legacy banks throughout Latin America.
Our enthusiasm for Nubank is that we are able to see a possible revolution in its buyer providing vs sleepy, fats banking incumbents.
Andrew Hollingworth
In Q1, Nu grew its buyer base to an unimaginable 118.6m, including over 4m within the quarter. But it solely operates in three international locations (Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia). And whereas round 60% of adults in Brazil are clients, the opposite two nations provide important progress potential (by no means thoughts elsewhere).
That stated, the lender may come unstuck as its credit score portfolio grows. If the loss ratio worsens, that might rapidly eat into margins and dent buyers’ confidence.
However, the agency’s fundamentals are spectacular. Common month-to-month income per buyer has elevated from $7 in 2022 to $11.20 in Q1 2025. However amongst longer-term clients who use extra of providers, that determine jumps to almost $26.
That is why Hollingworth has described the corporate as “a snowball on the prime of a hill“. I agree, making this share price contemplating for the long run, in my view.
Basic disruptor
The second inventory I need to spotlight from VT Holland Advisors’ portfolio is one I lastly purchased earlier this month: Clever (LSE: WISE). This fintech inventory is up round 31% over the previous yr.
Clever helps folks and companies ship cash throughout borders rapidly, cheaply, and transparently. Round two-thirds of the corporate’s new clients come by phrase of mouth.
The agency takes a lower of the transfers, however what Hollingworth likes is how Clever retains decreasing charges because it scales (just like Nubank). Clever’s cross-border take fee in Q1 was 0.52% globally, down from 0.58% the yr earlier than.
The fund supervisor says that is “basic disruptor behaviour“, with the agency “constructing a strong…[and] hard-to-copy scalable community“.
Wanting forward, Clever may face rising competitors, with rivals all seeking to take share within the huge £32trn cross-border cash market. A world financial downturn would additionally probably gradual fee volumes.
But, I feel Clever continues to be price contemplating proper now, together with VT Holland Advisors Fund. The latter’s portfolio of simply 30 shares does current some focus threat, however I reckon the supervisor’s technique to “discover nice firms run by nice managers out there at nice costs” will proceed to bear fruit.
