In a recent review of the equity fund holdings, specifically focussing on global equities we have shifted the focus from narrowly mandated specialist funds, that were partly used to provide diversification benefits, while providing some equity exposure, into broader global equity funds, which we believe have the best chance of delivering performance, on a forward-looking basis.
As part of this review, one of the funds we have recently added is the T.Rowe Price Global Focused Growth Equity fund. Although T.Rowe Price is not a household name in the UK, it is a very large and respected global asset management firm, which is responsible for north of $1.5trillion USD of assets. The firm has a lot of resources, with over 100 analysts covering over 4,000 stocks.
This particular fund is managed by David Eiswert, who makes very good use of the resources at the firm. He and his sub-team essentially cherry pick the best stock ideas from the analysts, where they believe there is an insight that should lead to superior returns. The fund is managed with a distinct bias towards largely capitalised growth stocks, however, it is run within sensible parameters that should provide investors with broad regional and sector exposures, to companies listed in both developed and emerging markets.
While this fund does have its biases, and is one that we would consider to be higher end of the risk spectrum, we feel that it is a great fit within the overall re-appraisal of the global equity bucket.
Daniel Pereira, Investment Research Analyst
