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.”
AUTHOR
Oksana Patron
Recommended for you
Family office Lederer Group has made an off-market takeover bid for ASX-listed Elanor Commercial Property Fund, with chair Paul Lederer taking exception at the firm’s lack of accountability, oversight and transparency.
Janus Henderson is actively seeking to partner with private wealth firms in Australia as it looks to expand its number of strategic partnerships, as well as focus on retirement income product development.
Global investment manager First Sentier Investors has launched an umbrella brand to provide greater clarity around its shift to a multi-affiliate asset manager encompassing six investment teams.
Janus Henderson has seen intermediary outflows in the second quarter of US$1.2 billion, although its deal with insurer Guardian means overall net flows are US$46.7 billion.
