Author: David Flynn, Chief Investment Strategist and Director.
Happy New Year Everyone! This is just a quick update to show how our investment products and also how the major asset classes performed in 2025. Our General Update will be published around the middle of January.
On product returns, it should be noted that return numbers include all charges, which is not the case for our benchmarks. Benchmarks show you returns before taking account of all charges. If we reported our returns before accounting for all charges, our returns would look significantly higher than our reported numbers. Returns are based on closing prices at the end of 2025. Returns can vary depending on portfolio size.
Baggot Equity Income (BEI)
BEI 2025 Return: 21.7%
Benchmark Setanta Dividend Fund 2025 Return: 5.3%
BEI 2025 Outperformance: 16.4%
Baggot Multi-Equity (BME)
BME 2025 Return: 16.4%
Benchmark MSCI World 2025 Return: 7.2%
BME 2025 Outperformance: 9.2%
Baggot Multi-Asset 4 (BMA 4)
BMA 4 (Medium Risk) 2025 Return: 9.0%
Benchmark Irish Life MAPS 4, 2025 Return: 6.5%
BMA 4 2025 Outperformance: 2.5%
Baggot Multi-Asset 5 (BMA 5)
BMA 5 (Medium-High Risk) 2025 Return: 12.5%
Benchmark Irish Life MAPS 5, 2025 Return: 7.7%
BMA 5 2025 Outperformance: 4.8%
Baggot Multi-Asset 6 (BMA 6)
BMA 6 (High Risk) 2025 Return: 13.2%
Benchmark Irish Life MAPS 6, 2025 Return: 8.3%
BMA 6 2025 Outperformance: 4.9%
Observations
We outperformed benchmarks and peers in all of our investment products in 2025. The main reasons;
In our Equity products, we had significantly less exposure to US Equities than our peers in 2025, favouring European, Japanese, Emerging Market and Global Value Equities.
Where it relates to multi-asset products, we were significantly overweight precious metals vs peers and continued to keep our Bond exposure in the Ultrashort Dated Investment Grade space, while our peers have favoured longer duration Bonds.
It seems counter-intuitive to many that longer duration Bonds in Europe continue to dramatically underperform shorter duration Bonds, given that the ECB has cut interest rates eight times since June of 2024. We’ve gotten things wrong before too. Everyone is human, but ultimately for us, it is down to the fact that ultra-short duration Bonds have a risk profile in the 1-2 range, while longer duration government Bonds have a risk profile in the 4-5 range.
We believe that we live in a world where governments and central banks cannot allow Bonds to generate returns in excess of inflation. In that world, longer duration Bonds are much more risky, so for the risk, we much prefer assets that can track or even beat these longer term inflationary policies, such as Equities and Commodities.
Asset Class Returns
Asset class return numbers noted below are all based in Euro denominated terms. Data taken from investable European Equity, Bond, Commodity and Crypto ETFs, which include costs as well as dividend payments.
For perspective when comparing returns, the Euro gained 13.6% vs the US Dollar in 2025.
Equity ETF 2025 Returns Leaders & Laggards (Euro denominated returns)
2025 Leaders: MSCI Latin America, German DAX, Euro Stoxx 50.
2025 Laggards: MSCI India, S&P 500, NASDAQ 100.
Q4/2025 Equities ETF Performance (Euro denominated returns)
S&P 500: 2.5% / 3.9%
NASDAQ 100: 2.3% / 6.6%
Euro Stoxx 50: 5.1% / 21.8%
Stoxx Europe 600: 6.5% / 20.2%
German DAX: 2.7% / 22.7%
FTSE 100: 6.9% / 19.4%
MSCI EM Asia: 4.4% / 17.1%
MSCI China: -7.4% / 15.9%
MSCI Emerging Markets: 4.6% / 18.3%
MSCI Japan: 4.0% / 11.0%
MSCI World: 3.1% / 7.2%
MSCI Latin America: 8.4% / 37.3%
MSCI India: 4.5% / -8.8%
MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan: 3.5% / 13.8%
Bond ETF 2025 Leaders & Laggards (Euro denominated returns)
2025 Leaders: European Investment Grade Ultrashort dated Bonds, European Aggregate Bonds and European Inflation Linked Bonds.
2025 Laggards: German 10+ Year Bonds (Bund), US 10+ Year Treasury Bonds and US Inflation Protected Bonds.
Q4/2025 Bond ETF Performance (Euro denominated returns)
Europe Investment Grade Ultrashort dated Bond ETF: 0.7% / 2.8%
German 10+ Year Bund ETF: -2.2% / -8.7%
US 10+ Year Treasury Bond ETF: -0.2% / -6.6%
Europe Aggregate Bond ETF: 0.2% / 1.2%
Global Aggregate Bond ETF: 0.3% / -4.4%
EM Bond ETF: 3.0% / 0.4%
US Inflation Protected Bonds: 0.1% / -5.5%
Europe Inflation Linked Bonds: 0.2% / 0.9%
Q4/2025 Precious Metals ETF Performance (Euro denominated returns)
Gold: 12.1% / 45.7%
Silver: 55.4% / 119.8%
Platinum: 29.0% / 95.1%
Palladium: 24.6%/ 51.7%
Q4/2025 Industrial Metals ETF Performance (Euro denominated returns)
Copper: 16.5% / 21.3%
Nickel: 8.6% / -6.1%
Aluminium: 11.4% / 4.4%
Q4/2025 Energy ETF Performance (Euro denominated returns)
Brent Crude: -6.1% / -18.5%
WTI Crude: -6.6% / -21.0%
US Natural Gas: -9.0% / -33.3%
European Natural Gas: -11.9% / -46.8%
Q4/2025 Crypto ETF (Euro denominated returns)
Bitcoin: -22.4% / -18.7%
Ethereum: -27.6% / -22.3%
Solana: -38.4%/ -41.7%
NASDAQ Crypto Index: -25.3% / -21.4%
Conclusion
Again, we will be publishing our General Update around mid-January, where we will discuss our views across asset classes as we move forward into the New Year.
To conclude, we remain confident in the way our portfolios are constructed. Our multi-asset portfolios provide true diversification when you really need it, in an uncertain world.
Please do let us know if you wish to discuss your portfolio at any time.
We appreciate your faith and trust in us.
Kind Regards,
David Flynn
Chief Investment Strategist and Director
dflynn@baggot.ie
Baggot Asset Management Limited t/a Baggot Investment Partners is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland
CRO Number: 565467
Central Bank Ref: C143849
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