Global equity funds enjoyed a strong 2025; top performers up more than 27%

Global equities managers in 2025 certainly needed their wits about them. It was a year complicated by the twin risks of growing geopolitical instability of many stripes and a stock market growing increasingly hotter, thanks in no small part to the AI boom.

But beneath the turbulent waters, opportunities abounded for fund managers who remain calm. Funds that managed to ride the developing (or recovering) growth trends achieved bumper performance, whether it was the surge in commodities or the small and mid-cap rebound. 

But which global equity fund can lay claim to the best performance in 2025? As we do every year, we've run the numbers to see which funds and managers have come out on top in these eventful times. 

How we compiled these lists

These global equity funds are all listed on the Livewire 'Find Funds' menu (top right-hand side of your page). It should be noted that this is not an exhaustive list of all the global equities funds domiciled in Australia - there are others not listed in Livewire's 'Find Funds' marketplace.

The filters we used were:

• In the “Fund type” box, select “Managed Funds”
• In “Asset Class”, select “global equities"
• We then manually filtered results based on 1-year returns.

NOTE: While it is an interesting exercise to examine fund performance over a one-year period, most funds recommend minimum investment periods of five years or more. As such, it would be worthwhile to consider longer-term performance across cycles when researching funds or making investment decisions. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future return.

Top-performing global equity funds in 2025

#1 - Janus Henderson Global Natural Resources

Fund managers: Daniel Sullivan and Darko Kuzmanovic 

Fund profile: Invests in high-quality mining, energy and agriculture companies with flexibility to invest across the supply chain, taking advantage of price shifts between upstream and downstream sectors and across industries.

Highly experienced, specialist team utilises expertise to identify investment ‘sweet spots’ ahead of stock price appreciation.

Top holdings (as of 30 November 2025):

#2 - Antipodes Global SMID Fund

Fund manager: James Rodda 

Fund profile: The Antipodes Global SMID Fund offers an eclectic portfolio of attractively valued small-to-mid-sized companies (based on market capitalisation) listed on global stock exchanges, with a focus on companies with a market capitalisation between US$1-30bn. 

The strategy of the fund is appealing to investors who seek to grow their wealth over the long term while remaining mindful of volatility during challenging times in the market.

Top holdings (as of 31 October 2025):

#3 - Platinum International Health Sciences Fund

Fund manager: Dr Bianca Ogden 

Fund profile: The fund seeks to take advantage of the changes and developments occurring in the fields of health care and medicine, and offers investors exposure to companies engaged in the provision of a wide range of products and services within the global healthcare ecosystem, from multinational pharmaceuticals to biotechs engaged in early stage research, from medical equipment makers to specialists in diagnostic and laboratory technologies, from hospitals to healthcare software providers.

Top holdings (as of 31 December 2025): 

#4 - Antipodes Global Fund

Fund manager: Jacob Mitchell 

Fund profile: The fund features a very flexible approach to investing in global shares with the aim of generating strong risk-adjusted returns over the medium to long term. In addition to a portfolio of at least 30 attractively valued companies, the fund also uses derivatives and short selling with the aim of profiting from both rising and falling share prices. The fund’s exposure to foreign currencies is actively managed with the aim of mitigating risk while enhancing returns.

Top holdings (as of 31 October 2025):

#5 - Antipodes Global Value Fund (Hedged)

Fund manager: Jacob Mitchell 

Fund profile: The fund offers an eclectic portfolio of attractively valued companies listed on global stock exchanges, including in emerging markets. Our fundamental, pragmatic value-focused approach focuses on buying great but undervalued companies and building a concentrated portfolio of at least 30 holdings. 

The strategy of the fund is appealing to investors seeking AUD hedged exposure to grow their wealth over the long term while remaining mindful of risk-adjusted returns.

Top holdings (as of 31 October 2025):

Important notes about the data

• We excluded listed-only products (namely ETFs) from this list as they will be covered in other wires and to keep the focus of this piece on global equities
• Fund performance is typically viewed over longer timeframes than one year (i.e. three-year and five-year rolling periods). Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future return. The tables above simply capture the best-performing funds, in their respective categories, for the past 12 months.
• All data is supplied by Morningstar. If you would like to conduct your own research into top-performing funds, you can do so by clicking here.