Zenith upgrades AB global fund
AllianceBernstein (AB) has announced that research house, Zenith Investments Partners, has upgraded its rating for the AB Global Equities Fund to ‘highly recommended’, the highest possible rating to be assigned.
The fund, which was first launched in Australia in July 2015, initially received a ‘recommended’ rating form Zenith in December 2015.
Since its inception in Australia, it delivered total returns of 8.34 per cent, compared to the 7.21 per cent delivered by the MSCI All Country World Index in Australian dollars, which represented an outperformance of 1.13 per cent, the company said.
The research house praised the fund for its investment philosophy which comprised two fundamental beliefs such as:
- Attractively valued companies that generate strong and sustainable returns on invested capital should be profitable investments; and
- Consistent results should be achieved through minimising unintended factor exposures, which would allow stocks selection to be the key driver of returns.
“Zenith notes that the team has employed a consistent investment process over the life of the strategy, producing an impressive long-term record,” the research house said.
Recommended for you
There is one specific risk that is a significantly higher concern for financial services directors compared to companies overall and is impacting their risk appetite, according to the AICD.
Global fund managers are shunning bonds, with the asset class seeing the largest drop in allocations in more than 20 years.
Australian Ethical has seen its funds under management reach $10 billion, driven by organic customer growth and superannuation contributions.
Financial advisers will have access to private equity investments run by WTW for the first time as it launches a pooled fund to provide savers with access to traditionally institutional assets.