Ninety One GSF EM Lcl Ccy Dbt C Acc USD

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|26/02/2025

by Arvind Subramanian
Ninety One Emerging Markets Local Currency Debt (sold as both a UK-domiciled open-ended investment company and as the Luxembourg-domiciled 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 it more volatile than some competitors.

Morningstar has enhanced the way we assess alpha opportunity for funds, which is a key component in our Morningstar Medalist Rating calculation. More of this strategy's Medalist Ratings than usual may therefore change with this update even in the absence of changes to pillar ratings or fund costs.

The strategy boasts a seasoned crew. Werner Gey van Pittius, also serving as the firm’s co-head of fixed income, has run this strategy since 2012, while Antoon De Klerk, another veteran of the firm, joined this fund in 2017. Rounding out the team is Christine 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 is part of a 12-member investment team, which is among the more experienced and stable in this space, boasting an average of roughly two decades of investment experience.

That said, the team saw some reshuffling in 2023 when Peter Eerdmans, the firm’s former head of emerging-markets fixed income, stepped down from his leadership position to focus on portfolio management. This resulted in increased leadership responsibilities for this strategy’s comanagers. 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 the 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; however, investors should be mindful that the managers’ penchant for bargain-hunting among out-of-favor and less-liquid issues can lead to higher volatility over the short term.
 
Morningstar Medalist Rating™Led by a seasoned investment team.
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Morningstar Pillars
PeopleAbove Average
ParentAbove Average
ProcessAbove 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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In order to provide consistency across the report data provided by different Asset Managers, the calculated data points presented are generated using Morningstar’s proprietary calculation methodology which is set out in more detail at(https://www.morningstar.com/research/signature)
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