PineBridge launches flagship lifecycle global equity fund in Australia

Rob Hinchcliff

PineBridge Investments (’PineBridge’), a private, global asset manager focused on active, high-conviction investing has launched the PineBridge (AU) Global Focus Equity Fund (‘the Fund’), marking the first time that the firm’s flagship Global Focus Equity Fund is available to Australian wholesale investors.

The Fund offers investors access to the global equity market, combining a fundamental research driven investment process and a disciplined risk management approach. In turn, the Fund seeks to provide investors with capital appreciation by using proprietary alpha tools for identifying mispricing opportunities in high-quality companies to construct a portfolio with more consistent and diversified returns.

The Fund is differentiated by analysing companies based on their “Lifecycle” stage rather than sector or industry which provides for consistent evaluation and a superior basis for like-to-like company comparisons. This provides a more accurate reading of a company’s potential relative to the market’s perception of it. The result is a differentiated 30-50-stock portfolio that is high in active share and low in benchmark-relative risk.

PineBridge’s Lifecycle equity research framework, which has been in existence for over 20 years, provides a disciplined approach to capture the market opportunity in identifying the dynamic evolution of companies which typically occurs over the longer run. As the anticipated changes become visible to the market over time, valuations converge with fundamentals, delivering the opportunity that was identified at the time of the stock’s purchase. These investment opportunities exist across the entire market spectrum and at every point in the economic cycle, and consequently, the team are agnostic towards style- and sector-based investing.

The Fund is managed by a highly experienced equity team, led by Rob Hinchliffe, Portfolio Manager, Head of Global Sector Cluster Research, who have consistently applied a robust and disciplined framework to the portfolio through market cycles.

Rob Hinchliffe, Portfolio Manager, Head of Global Sector Cluster Research, said: “In a market characterized by return dispersion and elevated valuations, selectivity and risk management is more important than ever. The Global Focus Equity team have consistently applied a non-consensus, high conviction active investment approach, which has resulted in low correlation to peers and a differentiated source of returns.”

Clinton Grobler, Head of Australia, said: “The launch of the PineBridge Global Focus Equity Fund marks a step change in PineBridge’s expanding Australian business. I believe Global Focus Equity will strongly complement PineBridge’s existing product range in Australia, appealing to investors’ core global equity appetite via a differentiated lifecycle, high conviction approach, combined with disciplined benchmark aware risk management.”