Winter 2024: the funds gaining and losing their Elite Ratings

Following its winter investment committee meeting, FundCalibre has awarded seven new Elite Ratings and four new Elite Radar badges. One investment trust has moved between ratings, while two funds have lost their ratings.

Seven newly Elite Rated funds

Aegon High Yield Bond — With a style-agnostic portfolio, the fund aims for long-term outperformance by capitalising on inefficiencies spanning issuers, sectors, and geographies. What sets this fund apart is its high conviction, flexible approach, and the team’s deep expertise. This nimble strategy allows them to seize market opportunities, resulting in a strong track record in recent years.

Ashoka India Equity Investment Trust — Launched in 2018, the trust is designed for long-term capital growth through investments in companies of all sizes within India. Its unique approach to stock selection, emphasis on mid and small-cap markets, and commitment to ESG, especially governance in India, make it stand out. The trust’s innovative fee structure aligns management interests with investors through a performance fee linked to outperformance.

Bluebay Emerging Market Unconstrained Bond — A distinctive, high conviction fund investing in both hard and local currency debt it spans sovereign and corporate emerging market debt, and may short or bet against entities with a strong view. Managed by a highly experienced and well-resourced team with a consistent track record, it demonstrates an exceptionally sound process in navigating the complexities of this challenging asset class across multiple geographies.

Comgest Growth America — An unconstrained, highly concentrated portfolio comprising of just 25-35 companies. Focused on quality growth, it rigorously selects high-quality firms meeting stringent ESG criteria across the US. The fund’s success is attributed to a transparent process and an experienced management team, delivering outstanding performance over their tenures. We would expect the fund to continue to repay investors’ trust in the future.

Fidelity Asian Smaller Companies — A true stock-picking gem, placing a strong emphasis on acquiring quality businesses at favourable prices, the fund boasts a contrarian ‘value’ bias. It uniquely assesses risk in absolute terms rather than relative to benchmarks or peer groups, showcasing a high level of dependence on the manager’s skill. His impressive track record, combined with the research capabilities of Fidelity, makes this an exemplary choice.

Martin Currie Global Portfolio Trust — A high conviction, unconstrained portfolio comprising 25-40 global companies, emphasising quality growth businesses that the team identifies as leaders and innovators in long-term investment themes like the rise of electric vehicles, emerging market middle-class growth, and the onset of artificial intelligence. The research-driven approach, which has proven highly successful across various portfolios, instills confidence in continued success for this trust in the longer term.

Ninety One Diversified Income — The focus of this fund is to offer investors an appealing and sustainable income, along with potential capital growth. Aiming for an annual yield of approximately 4%, distributed monthly with less than half the volatility of UK equities, the fund employs a mix of growth, defensive, and uncorrelated assets to achieve its returns. Launched in 2012, it serves as an ideal building block for risk-averse investors transitioning from cash to an investment fund.

Four new Elite Radar badges

Artemis Leading Consumer Brands — A versatile global thematic fund strategically targeting the consumption patterns of the emerging middle class, particularly in the luxury brands segment. Utilising a bottom-up, high-conviction approach, the fund leverages the team’s extensive experience and deep knowledge of consumer sectors. Its benchmark-agnostic and unconstrained nature empowers the team to be agile, seizing optimal opportunities across various luxury brands.

GQG Partners US Equity — A stand out unconstrained, concentrated portfolio of high-quality US companies with enduring earnings potential. Emphasising forward-looking quality rather than historical performance, the strategy discards traditional labels like value and growth in favour of long-term compounding. The team’s extensive knowledge of thousands of companies, coupled with the fund’s inherent flexibility, enables them to be nimble and responsive to market opportunities, contributing to the expectation of continued success.

Man GLG Dynamic Income — Manager Jonathan Golan’s remarkable first decade managing corporate bond funds lays the foundation for his newest venture, a strategic bond fund offering even greater flexibility to pursue his best ideas. Positioned in the strategic bond sector, this fund allows for investment in high yield, emerging markets, and government bonds. The fund’s exceptional start reinforces the belief that Jonathan can continue delivering outstanding results in the future.

Redwheel Biodiversity — This fund targets a multi-decade growth opportunity driven by the imperative to safeguard biodiversity. An active multi-cap fund, it identifies key long-term investment themes crucial for biodiversity protection, investing globally across companies of all sizes. While it has recently launched and needs to demonstrate results, this fund is certainly one to watch, given the potential for growth in the market focused on biodiversity protection.

One fund moves from Rated to Radar

Mid Wynd International Trust — Following the departure of Alex Illingworth and the imminent retirement of Simon Edelsten from Artemis, the Mid Wynd International trust moved management from Artemis to Lazard Asset Management. Trust management changed to Louis Florentin-Lee and Barnaby Wilson, who will retain Artemis’ focus on quality global companies as well as its valuation discipline.

Two funds losing ratings

AXA Framlington Biotech — Linden Thomson, who has run this fund since 2012 has left the company so the fund must lose its Elite Rating.

Ninety One Asia Pacific Franchise — With a change of manager on the fund, along with a change of mandate, the decision has been made to remove the Elite Rating from the fund.