Ninety One GSF EM Lcl Ccy Dbt C Acc USD |
Morningstar's Take
|01/03/2024by Arvind Subramanian
| Ninety One Emerging Market Local Currency Debt (sold as both a UK-domiciled OEIC and as the Luxembourg-domiciled vehicle Ninety One GSF Emerging Markets Local Currency Debt) benefits from the investment team’s deep market expertise and a collaborative investment process, though its penchant for less-liquid frontier markets makes its profile more volatile than some competitors. Nonetheless, the fund’s higher fees on many of its share classes relative to its peer group dampen its appeal. Leading this offering are Werner Gey van Pittius, Antoon De Klerk, and Christine Reed. Gey van Pittus, also serving as the firm’s co-head of fixed income, has run this strategy since 2012, while De Klerk, another veteran of the firm, joined this fund in 2017. Rounding out the team is Reed, who was appointed as a comanager in September 2023, although she has been contributing to this strategy as the regional analyst for Latin America since 2021. The trio forms part of a 12-member investment team, which is among the more experienced and stable in this space, boasting an average 18 years of investment experience and 12 years of tenure at the firm. That said, the team witnessed some reshuffling in 2023 when Peter Eerdmans, the firm’s former head of emerging-markets fixed income, stepped down from his leadership positions to focus on portfolio management. This resulted in increased leadership responsibilities for this strategy’s comanagers: Gey van Pittius, who was elevated to co-head of fixed income, and De Klerk, who assumed charge as the team’s co-head of emerging-markets sovereign debt and currency. Nevertheless, these changes are unlikely to significantly alter the investment process here given the group's highly collaborative investment style and the overall stability of the team. The long-established framework draws on fundamental inputs for both top-down macro analysis and country-specific assessments. Analysts rank the bonds and currencies of the countries they cover with the help of several proprietary models, including tools to analyze inflation or the vulnerability of currencies to devaluation. That has produced an attractive long-term record: The strategy’s S share delivered top-quintile returns over the trailing five and 10 years through January 2024. Investors should be mindful, however, that the managers’ penchant for bargain-hunting among out-of-favor and less-liquid issues can lead to higher volatility over the short term. |
Led by a seasoned investment team.To find out how Morningstar rates a fund click here.
| Morningstar Pillars | |
| People | Above Average |
| Parent | Above Average |
| Process | Above Average |
Morningstar Medalist RatingMorningstar assigns the Medalist Rating to funds that are qualitatively and quantitatively assessed through manager research and algorithmic processes. The assessment turns on three key “pillars” – People, Process, and Parent – that yield an estimate of how well a fund will perform before fees but after adjusting for risk.
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