William Blair funds get ‘superior’ ratings
US funds management firm, William Blair has been awarded “superior” ratings from research house, SQM Research for all three of its Australian funds.
The funds which included the William Blair Global Leaders (Global leaders), the William Blair Emerging Leaders (Emerging Leaders) and the William Blair Dynamic Diversified Allocation (DDA) earned a 4.25 star, a four star and 4.25 star ‘superior’ ratings, respectively.
SQM recognised Global Leaders and Emerging Leaders for their in-depth fundamental analysis procedure and the cohesiveness of William Blair’s team.
As far as DDA was concerned, SQM identified that the fund posted positive returns in five of the 10 worst months for the ASX300 since December 2013, with a 63 per cent correlation between those returns.
The fund was also praised for its ‘successful history of global macro investing’, the strength of the team, led by Brian Singer, as well as its highly disciplined risk management system that incorporated geopolitical risk through game theory analysis, liquid execution of macro strategies and a transparent process.
The research house also said the management fees on all three funds were below the peer average.
William Blair’s head of Australia and New Zealand, Alex Francois, said: “This is an excellent result for William Blair”.
“The SQM results confirm that our Australian offer provides access to superior investment opportunities in broader global markets and currencies and across geopolitical themes that they may otherwise not be able to access.
“This is particularly important in Australia, given the size of our market and on ongoing low interest rate environment.”
Recommended for you
Pinnacle Investment Management has announced it plans to launch a new affiliate from a global equities team departing Royal London Asset Management.
Asset manager Nuveen is seeing opportunity in municipal bonds which are at their highest yields in over a decade.
With energy transition remaining a significant challenge, a global index provider executive has argued that engagement could trump divestment.
Aviva Investors is maintaining an underweight stance on the communications sector within its high yield allocation as it believes it faces a higher default rate.
