Quarterly Report December 2022

Stock markets have had a difficult year. Globally, 2022 was the worst stock market year for equities since thefinancialcrisis in 2008. The broad European index Stoxx Europe 600 fell 12% and the Dutch AEX index fell 11% (including dividends). The prices of small and medium-sized companies fell much harder than the prices of large companies. For example, the index of medium-sized companies in Switzerland fell 28% (excluding dividends). The AEF's average net currency weighting was 19%, so the beta contributed negatively to earnings in 2022. Stock selection (alpha) contributed positively to the annual return.

In fact, it was a historically bad year for bonds. In the last hundred years, it was rare to see bonds in oneone year lost 15% of their value.

Over 50% of the long positions contributed positively to earnings. On balance, the long positions contributed negatively. The short positions contributed positively to earnings. On average, the short positions fell faster than the stock market and thus contributed to alpha.

The best performing long positions were Accelleron (turbo compressors), Holcim (building materials) and KPN (telecommunications). The worst-performing long position was Datwyler (medical applications).

Accelleron's share price rose 15%. Accelleron is a new investment in the AEF that entered the portfolio in the last quarter of 2022. It was until recently known as 'ABB Turbocharging'. In October, the company was spun off from ABB ('Asea Brown Boveri') and received its own stock market listing. Later in the quarterly report, we describe Accelleron's investment case in detail.

Holcim's share price rose 16% in 2022 (in Euro's and including dividends). The producer of building materials, including cement, achieved solid results in 2022. Holcim succeeded in absorbing sharply increased energy costs with price increases. Furthermore, the company is making strong progress in transforming its portfolio. In the third quarter, sales of the Brazilian and Indian cement operations were completed with revenues of more than $7 billion. At the same time, Holcim is making acquisitions of companies with products for roofing, insulation and specialized construction solutions. Due to the strong relative performance and weaker outlook for the construction sector, the AEF sold the position toward year-end. Since the purchase in March 2020, the value of a share of Holcim in Euro's increased by almost 50%.

KPN including dividends rose 10% in 2022. KPN surprised at the beginning of 2022 with the announcement to buy back 300 million euros worth of shares. The results achieved in 2022 were solid. KPN only had to reduce its 2023 profit forecast by a few percent for the sharp increase in energy and labor costs. Furthermore, KPN steadily continued to build a nationwide fiber optic network, to which half of the households in the Netherlands are already connected. The Dutch competition and market authority, the ACM, took a decision on tariffs for access to KPN's fiber network. This decision came about after KPN made a proposal to substantially reduce tariffs for access to the fiber network for other telecom providers. The fiber prices will be fixed for eight years. This assures KPN of a stable revenue stream for an extended period of time. Finally, KPN benefited from positive sentiment for defensive stocks.

With a 55% share price loss, Datwyler contributed significantly negatively to the Antaurus Europe Fund's annual result. Since the war in Ukraineïne, a number of key raw material costs have risen rapidly for Datwyler, while price increases have only been delayed by a delay of three à six months could be implemented. As a result, Datwyler had to announce in May that profits for 2022 will be about 15% lower compared to 2021, instead of the previous expectation of a profit increase. In addition, in April Datwyler announced the acquisition of U.S.-based QSR. Because Datwyler plans to make a number of investments in QSR's production process, operational results will only start to fully contribute to earnings by the end of 2023. Despite the sharp drop in the share price in 2022, the AEF has made a positive return on its position in Datwyler since the acquisition in mid-2019.