The German bank's wealth arm has expanded its range of what it calls "real value" funds.

Deutsche Bank's wealth management arm has widened its offering of funds seeking to hold what are seen as the most undervalued stocks in their class.
 
Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management announced that it has expanded its CROCI (Cash Return on Capital Invested) range of "real value" investments by rolling out the DB Platinum IV CROCI Europe fund. Investors will have exposure to a concentrated portfolio of 40 stocks via the new fund, which are selected as the lowest CROCI-derived "economic P/E" within a broad basket of European large-cap stocks.

The fund, which will re-balance quarterly, sits alongside the firm's range of 10 CROCI funds, which collectively comprise £8.07 billion ($12.5 billion) assets under management.

Under the "CROCI" methodology, Deutsche AWM assesses the fundamental value of companies through systemically adjusting corporate accounts to work out valuations that aren't hampered by standard accounting methods, it says. By establishing unique "economic price/earnings (P/E)" ratios, and then ranking stocks, excluding financials, according to this ratio, the approach aims to spot companies for potential investment that are undervalued while avoiding the most overvalued stocks.

As well as eurozone countries, the new fund potentially includes exposure to companies from the UK, Switzerland and the Nordics. Deutsche AWM’s existing CROCI funds include the CROCI UK fund, which was launched in October of last year, and the CROCI Euro fund, which provides focused exposure to eurozone companies. CROCI funds are also available for the Japanese and US equity markets, global stocks, with dividend tilts, and filtered for environmental, social and governance measures.

Launched with an institutional share class that has a total expense ratio of 0.51 per cent, the firm intends to launch a retail share class shortly, Deutsche Bank said.