ClearBridge Investments and J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) have both launched global equity funds for Australian investors.
At ClearBridge, the ClearBridge Global Growth Fund has a 12-year track record but is now being made available for Australian investors for the first time.
It employs a disciplined, risk-aware approach aimed at delivering above-market, growth-like returns with market-level volatility. By identifying companies where the market has mispriced either the magnitude or duration of growth, the portfolio invests in 60 to 100 equities across a spectrum of growth: emerging, secular and structural.
Matt Bushby, head of APAC business development, said: “The ClearBridge Global Growth Fund is the first global equity fund ClearBridge has launched in Australia, and we are looking at potential opportunities to launch other global equity strategies in the future.
“We believe that increased volatility over the past few years as economies experienced higher inflation and the end of ultra-low interest rates, combined with the increased concentration risk in global equity indices, is driving financial advisers and investors to rethink their growth equity allocations. Increasingly investors are seeking consistency that can anchor their growth allocations through different market environments to compound over the longer term.”
Meanwhile JPMAM has announced the listing of JPMorgan Global Select Equity Active ETF (JGLO) on the ASX, the 12th active ETF the firm has brought to Australia.
JGLO follows the same strategy as the existing JPMorgan Global Select Equity strategy – a core, style-agnostic, high conviction diversified global equity portfolio that aims to deliver outperformance across a variety of market conditions – but with the added benefit of liquidity and transparency that comes with ETFs.
The ETF was first launched as a UCITS in September 2023 and now has over US$2 billion ($3 billion) in assets under management.
“With inflation starting to cool and market expectations of a soft/no landing, it’s time for investors to put their cash to work and consider an alpha engine that maximises the capabilities of our global research terms but at a cost of 55 bps, considerably lower than industry average,” said Mark Carlile, head of wholesale, Australia and New Zealand, at JPMAM.
“What we are seeing is that regardless of the market environment, investors are continuing to demand an active strategy that seeks to capture attractive return opportunities without taking undue risk. JGLO provides an attractive solution designed to help investors realise their financial goals and round out their portfolios with conviction,” added Helge Skibeli, CFA, CIO of the research driven process for international equities and global portfolio manager at JPMAM.
