Will Europe’s smaller companies deliver big returns?
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European equities have been largely unloved by investors for some time, having lagged their global peers over the past decade: the MSCI Europe ex UK Index has grown by circa 6% pa whilst the MSCI World Index is up circa 11% pa. European smaller companies have fared markedly better than their large cap counterparts however, outperforming the world in 2017 and growing at an annualised rate of over 10% during the last 10 years, as measured by the MSCI Europe ex UK Small Cap Index.
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Indeed, over the long term, European Smaller Companies has been one of the strongest performing sectors across the globe, as can be seen from the chart below