Starlight Capital publishes fund commentaries to help advisors understand our recent fund performance.

• Over the third quarter of 2024, Starlight Global Real Estate Fund, Series F (the Fund) returned 14.7%.
• Multi-Family Residential REITs, Retail REITs, and Industrial REITs were the top contributors to total return, which was slightly offset by laggards in Hotel & Resort REITs and Mortgage REITs.
  
  

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• Over the third quarter of 2024, Starlight Global Infrastructure Fund, Series F (the Fund) returned 4.9%. Year to date, the Fund is up 7.0%.
• Communication Services, Utilities, and Real Estate were the top contributors to total return, which was slightly offset by laggards in Energy and Information Technology
  
  

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• Over the third quarter of 2024, Starlight Dividend Growth Class, Series F (the Fund) returned 7.6%. Year to date, the Fund is up 15.6%.
• From a sector perspective, Financials, Utilities, and Healthcare contributed the most to total return.
  
  

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• Over the third quarter of 2024, Starlight North American Equity Fund, Series F (the Fund) returned 3.2%. Year to date, the Fund is up 16.5%.
• Financials, Information Technology, and Real Estate were the top contributors to total returns, which was slightly offset by laggards in Communication Services and Energy.
  
  

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• In the third quarter, the Starlight Global Growth Fund returned 4.3%. Year-to-date the Fund is up 19.3%.
• The long-awaited pivot in global interest rate policy accompanied a destabilising summer — both politically and economically — triggering one of the heaviest rotations in stock market history.
• Wild swings in both individual stock prices and the wider market have become commonplace. Despite some of the most destabilising months in memory, we’re always impressed with the adaptability and resilience of our portfolio companies.
• We have stocks that benefit from falling rates and others from ‘higher for longer’ rates, but believe both groups will prove excellent long-term investments no matter the short-term headwinds.

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• In the second quarter of 2024, Starlight Global Real Estate Fund, Series F (the Fund) returned -1.3%. Year to date, the Fund has returned -0.03%.
• Active management led us to initiate positions in healthcare and retail REITs that added to portfolio performance.
• We view the current market conditions as an opportunity for long-term investors to enter the market at potentially more attractive
  valuations.

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• In the second quarter of 2024, Starlight Global Infrastructure Fund, Series F (the Fund) is up 0.03%. YTD, the Fund has returned 1.9%.
• Digital infrastructure and renewable energy, fueled by surging global demand for data centers, 5G networks, and clean energy solutions, were contributors to performance.
• The Fund's diversified portfolio and focus on high-quality infrastructure assets contributed to its resilience amidst a challenging
  market environment.

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• In the second quarter of 2024, Starlight Dividend Growth Class, Series F (the Fund) returned 0.8%. YTD, the Fund is up 7.4%.
• Starlight Private Pools, Consumer staples, and Information Technology were the top contributors to total return, which was slightly offset by laggards in Healthcare, Financials, and Utilities.
• The Fund's 29% weighted average exposure to the United States contributed more than half of the return over the quarter.

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• In the second quarter of 2024, Starlight North American Equity, Series F (the Fund) returned 3.0%. YTD, the Fund is up 12.8%.
• Information Technology, Consumer Discretionary, and Communication Services were the top contributors to total return (in excess
• of 85% total return), which was slightly offset by laggards in Financials and Real Estate.
• The Fund’s 72% weighted average exposure to the United States contributed more than 88% of the return over the quarter.

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Sean Tascatan, Senior Portfolio Manager, Starlight Dividend Growth Class, continues to demonstrate his expertise in dividend growth investing. Our Fund continues to outperform its peers in the Morningstar Dividend and Income Equity category over the past decade, achieving 1st quartile rankings across all time periods, recently achieving a remarkable 1st percentile ranking for both 1-year and 5-year returns.


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• In the second quarter, the Starlight Global Growth Fund returned 2.1%. Year-to-date the Fund is up 14.4%.
• More than half the American population believe the US economy is in recession. There’s a sharp disconnect between what people feel and what the data is saying.
• Many recoil at the valuations of US stocks, but expensive does not always mean overvalued.
• We’re staying balanced across a variety of sectors. We think nimble stock-picking among industry champions and overlooked growth stocks should allow our active approach to deliver significant outperformance.

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• Over the first quarter of 2024, Starlight Global Real Estate Fund, Series F (the Fund) returned 1.3%.
• The Fund generated a total return of 0.92% in March 2024, taking the first quarter total return to +1.27%. This compares to Canadian REITs at -0.73%, US REITs at +2.18% (-0.32% in USD) and global REITs at +1.36% (-1.11% in USD).
• Industrial (Canada and US) and Multi-Residential (Canada) REITs were the top contributors to fund performance. These two sectors have the strongest fundamentals (high occupancy, strong rent and NOI growth, rising distributions) and represented two of the largest allocations in the portfolio.

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• Over the first quarter of 2024, Starlight Global Infrastructure Fund, Series F (the Fund) returned 1.9%.
• Fund performance was driven by stock selection in the information technology, energy, industrial and financial sectors. Selection from the United States, the Fund’s top geography, also contributed to performance.

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• Over the first quarter of 2024, Starlight Dividend Growth Class, Series F (the Fund) returned 6.5%.
• From a sector perspective, Financials, Industrials, Information Technology, and Energy contributed the most to total return (approx. 80% of the total return). From a geographic perspective, nearly two-thirds of the performance can be attributed to companies from the United States.

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• Over the first quarter of 2024, Starlight North American Equity, Series F (the Fund) returned 9.5%.
• The Fund showcased many double-digit performers over the quarter, primarily due to stock selection in Healthcare, Information Technology, and Financials. The Healthcare sector, notably overweight relative to the benchmark, was up over 15%, propelled by a handful of winners with over 20% return, including HCA Healthcare (up 26.8%), Cencora (up 21.8%), Boston Scientific Corporation (up 21.7%), and Intuitive Surgical (up 21.5%). Within the Information Technology sector, the Fund benefitted from exposure to AI winners such as Nvidia (up 87.3%), Applied Materials (up 30.9%), and Broadcom (up 22.5%). Notable winners in the Financials sector include KKR & Co. (up 24.9%), Trisura Group (up 22.5%), and Berkshire Hathaway (up 21.1%).

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• Over the first quarter of 2024, Starlight Global Growth Fund, Series F (the Fund) returned 12.0%.
• Fund performance was driven by stocks that continued to post higher earnings and upgrades to forecast profits, with notable performers including Nvidia and other ‘Magnificent Seven stocks,’ which still consume a lot of air time due to their strong performance. Yet we’re pleased that a broader spread of stocks has made a significant positive contribution to our performance during the quarter. Very different types of businesses, but all showing strong fundamentals, protected market positions and delivering earnings upgrades which pushed each higher during the period. We remain invested in all of them.
• We don’t expect any major changes to our portfolio over the coming months, as we have built for balance and a variety of economic scenarios. Markets remain obsessed with the timing and pace of future interest rate cuts. We think the key driver of outperformance during this period of patience will continue to be earnings upside and forecast upgrades. We expect the outperformance of growth strategies to continue as investors prize superior growth when it’s hard to find.

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• In the fourth quarter, the Fund generated a 10.4% total return, bringing the 2023 total return to 20.5% and first quartile. (Series F)
• We continued to own growth stocks which actually benefit from a world where growth is hard to find.
• Our holdings in the U.S. and Europe, in companies with high earnings growth, lots of free cash flow after cash expenses, attractive returns on equity and strong earnings upgrades were the key factors driving our fund’s outperformance last year.

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• In the third quarter, the Fund returned -4.6%. YTD, the Fund is up 9.2%. (Series F).
• We expect kangaroo markets to continue this year as investors vacillate between recession risk, sticky inflation risk and the potential for a helpful drop in interest rate if something starts to break.
• We believe a soft landing is possible, but now isn’t the time for one-way bets. We have built in the portfolio balance to try to withstand frequent market tantrums and a variety of economic scenarios. Ultimately, though, you must believe in high-quality growth equity investing and the patience of years to ride out the worst of the ups and downs.
  
  
  

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• YTD, the Fund is up 14.4% (Series F, as of June 30, 2023, inception date December 31, 1998).
• The Starlight Global Growth Fund is powered by a resilient collection of reliable and repeatable ‘growth’ themes in developed markets across defensive and cyclical sectors.
• We maintain our five-year investment horizon and a broad and balanced spread of high-quality growth stocks that can weather a variety of economic scenarios.

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• In 2020, COVID-19 significantly impacted the global economy with the bulk of global and U.S. equity market returns driven by multiple expansion
• Starlight Global Infrastructure Fund and Starlight Global Real Estate Fund outperform their benchmark for 2020 by 11.1% and 4.6%,respectively
• Starlight Global Infrastructure Fund and Starlight Global Real Estate Fund portfolio investments had 29 and 26 distribution increases in 2020, respectively

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• We expect the global economy to experience a short and deep recession, with global economic output contracting for calendar year 2020
• Starlight Global Real Estate Fund and Starlight Global Infrastructure Fund outperform their benchmark YTD by 7.1% and 11.9%, respectively
• Starlight Global Infrastructure Fund and Starlight Global Real Estate Fund portfolio investments had 16 and 14 distribution increases YTD, respectively

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• In 2019, the Starlight Global Infrastructure Fund generated a 26.5% total return outperforming its benchmark return of 21.0%.
• Last year, the Starlight Global Real Estate Fund generated a 20.8% total return beating its benchmark return of 17.2%.
• Both funds demonstrated negative downside capture versus global and U.S. equities in 2019, providing excellent diversification benefits to investors.

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Real estate total returns remain attractive

Year-to-date, global real estate has generated a total return of 7.0%. Declining risk premiums have driven market multiples up while corporate earnings revisions have stabilized in positive territory for the year.  The extension of two key deadlines and the eventual positive resolution of these events should allow the market to avoid testing 2018 lows.

Real estate outperforms again
In January, global real estate generated a 7.0% total return, outperforming global equities and U.S. equities.

Views expressed regarding a particular company, security, industry or market sector should not be considered an indication of trading intent of any mutual funds managed by Starlight Capital. These views are not to be considered as investment advice nor should they be considered a recommendation to buy or sell. Documents (including press releases) regarding the various investment funds that are managed or advised by Starlight Capital are provided for information purposes only and cannot be relied on to be complete, exhaustive or error-free unless the complete set of documents for any given investment fund with respect to which information is being sought is reviewed and then only on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Forward-looking statements

Any “forward-looking” statements contained in this Website represent Starlight’s views of possible future events or circumstances and are based on our observations and analysis of current events and trends. These statements are generally expressed in the future tense and may not be expressly identified as forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions made by Starlight regarding our beliefs and opinions, and are subject to a number of mitigating factors. Forward-looking statements may prove to be incorrect. Economic and market conditions may change, which may materially impact the views of Starlight, our actual course of conduct and the success of our intended investment strategies.