EasyAssetManagement in July: EasyETFs Outperformed. Again.

EasyAssetManagement saw an outperformance across our core EasyETFs  AMETFs, from global equities and AI themes to the balanced portfolio that’s been quietly making a comeback.

EasyAssetManagement's Strategy

At EAM we follow a thematic investment approach. What this means is that we narrow our universe down to themes. Themes that we believe have strong structural tailwinds behind them and that can deliver outsized gains for our investors. We have successfully implemented this strategy across our three Actively Managed ETFs (AMETFs) that we manage for EasyETFs. 

Whether it’s the AI Infrastructure, Emerging Consumer, Energy, or Multipolar World themes, EAM’s portfolios are designed around specific themes. Every AMETF reflects a deliberate thematic allocation strategy, grounded in data, and curated to capitalize on long-term structural changes that have the potential to deliver outsized returns.

In July 2025, these thematic portfolios once again stood apart from their benchmarks. This was the result of positioning early, staying responsive, and knowing where transformation meets opportunity.

EasyAI World AMETF: Leading from the Front

The EasyETFs AI World Actively Managed ETF posted another strong month of gains, significantly surpassing its Morningstar Global Artificial Intelligence Select benchmark. The fund gained +11.05% for the month of July, exceeding the benchmark’s +9.10%. On a year-to-date basis the contrast is even more striking: the Easy AI World has delivered +16.71% versus the benchmark’s +13.43%.

These results were the outcome of selective exposure to key themes, namely the AI Infrastructure, the AI Deployment, and the Energy themes which are powering the AI revolution.

• Allocation to infrastructure and energy players benefiting from rising data centre power demand and AI-defined systems and services.
  
  
• Real earnings firepower, with many top names beating estimates and raising forward guidance.

The fund’s positioning reflects an understanding of where margins, scale, and robust tailwinds converge.

Global Equity AMETF: Performance With a Passport

Our EasyETFs Global Equity Actively Managed ETF has the ability to invest across a diverse range of themes that EAM believes carry the essential tailwinds needed to deliver outsized gains for our investors. This was demonstrated by another strong month of returns, with July delivering +10.12% versus the MSCI ACWI benchmark’s +4.04%. Once again, this gain is overshadowed by the larger year-to-date outperformance, where the fund has almost tripled the benchmark’s +7.37%, delivering +20.35% so far in 2025.

Like the Easy AI World fund, many of the same themes are viewed as having these critical structural tailwinds. Easy GE also has significant exposure to the AI Infrastructure theme, the AI Deployment theme, and the Energy theme. In addition, the portfolio has meaningful exposure to the Multipolar World theme (aerospace, security, safety, and defence) as well as modest allocations to the Fintech & Cryptocurrencies theme.

Balanced Strategy: Steady Through Shifts

Our balanced solution, EasyETFs Balanced Actively Managed ETF, also delivered stellar performance, returning +5.37% versus the ASISA SA Multi-Asset High Equity Category Average of +2.20%. Year-to-date this looks even more impressive, with the fund returning +13.02% versus the benchmark’s +9.54%.

This fund has similar exposure to the themes in the AI and Global Equity portfolios, with the addition of the Bond investments and our preferred themes in the South African equity market.

Within the SA-listed universe, EAM is seeing strong tailwinds in themes such as:

• Technology Advancement theme
• Emerging Consumer theme
• Offshore Consumer Theme
• Safe Haven theme
• Infrastructure theme

The combination of targeted global and local exposure, together with bond allocations, has constructed a benchmark-beating portfolio for our investors.

Interpreting the Signals

Across all three funds, several clear signals emerged:

• AI is broadening beyond Big Tech. The structural drivers are no longer concentrated in mega-cap platforms. Infrastructure enablers, niche software specialists, and even regulated utilities are capturing capital flows as the AI economy matures and deepens.
  
  

• South African assets are quietly regaining ground. Pockets of resilience are visible in consumption-linked companies and commodity exposures, with select themes offering genuine diversification benefits.
  
  

• Thematic investing is proving its edge. Beyond performance differentiation, it provides attribution that reflects the real structural shifts reshaping global markets like technology, energy, security, and consumer transitions.

Markets will continue to swing, that’s inevitable. But portfolios anchored in data-driven, structural themes are designed to remain steady through volatility while retaining the agility to pivot when the landscape changes.

At EasyAssetManagement, July reinforced the durability of our approach: a long-term strategy that has consistently shown up in moments of uncertainty and is built to keep doing so.

Learn More

Discover how to make the most out of AMETFs here and check out the latest courses at EasyAcademy. 

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EasyETFs (RF) (Pty) Ltd (“EasyETFs”) (previously known as the Cloud Atlas (RF) (Pty) Ltd), the registered collective investment scheme manager of the EasyETF scheme (previously known as the Cloud Atlas scheme), which is a collective investment scheme in securities (the “Scheme”) approved by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority. The Scheme is an authorised issuer of exchange traded funds (“ETFs”) on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

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