Team effort behind triumph
The finesse of an experienced investment team can be the difference between outperforming and underperforming, even in tough market circumstances.
As it celebrates its 21st birthday in Australia, this year's Fund Manager of the Year - Lazard Asset Management Pacific Co. - will toast its team with this philosophy in mind.
Indeed, it's the expertise of the global firm's Australian team that has been credited with raising its profile in a competitive landscape against some long-standing asset management groups.
"Our team and the intellectual resources available to them distinguish Lazard's Australian equity management from many of our peers," the Pacific branch's chief executive officer, Susan Roberts, said.
The Australian-based team has an average 18 years experience in researching and managing value-style investments, according to Roberts.
"Each member of the team is able to comment critically on a number of different industries," Roberts said.
"This level of seniority and experience is meaningful for investors seeking long-term outperformance from their Australian equity investments."
Lazard Asset Management Pacific Co. was established in 1994 as an offshoot of the global firm. Its Australian Equities team was set up in 1999.
In a relatively short time in the funds management space, it has managed to accrue up $20.1 billion in funds under management.
It also eclipsed other finalists, BT Investment Management and Legg Mason Asset Management, to score the Money Management and Lonsec title this year.
Roberts said that, in line with Lazard's international counterparts, "our investment philosophy is to buy stocks, not markets, and to exploit investment opportunities as stock prices deviate from intrinsic value".
Like Lazard, BTIM believes a strong team is instrumental to investment performance. Staff have equity in the company so they can "celebrate and share in successes", CEO Emilio Gonzalez said. "We're trying to promote an equity culture and an alignment between the business value we create for clients and the creation of shareholder value," he said.
"We do treat them as part of the business, not just employees."
Legg Mason shared Lazard's view that being part of a large international investment company gave fund managers the solid research resources and the ingredients for success.
"We deal with only Legg mason fund managers," chief investment officer Reece Birtles said.
"To some degree, we have a shared vision with these fund managers because we're all part of the same family," he added.
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