The William Blair Global Leaders Fund, earned a 4.25 star ‘superior’ rating while the William Blair Emerging Markets Leaders Funds earned a 4 star rating.

In its Funds research, SQM highlighted the strength of both the funds in bringing Willam Blair’s history as a long established funds management firm in the US with a strong pedigree in active management.

“Its in-depth fundamental analysis procedure, supplemented by objective scoring input from William Blair’s proprietary quantitative models allows for the identification of opportunities and potential risks,” said SQM.

Strong team cohesiveness was also identified as a strength of both funds. William Blair’s analysts and portfolio managers collaborate extensively on the composition of the Eligibility List and Research Agenda to ensure efficient processing of ideas and timely portfolio implementation,” said SQM.

Management fees of both funds were below the peer average.

Alex François, William Blair’s Head of Australia and New Zealand Institutional Distribution, said, “William Blair’s funds are offering quality investment opportunities to Australian investors in broader global markets and currencies and across geopolitical themes that are sometimes difficult to access. We are delighted to have earned these ratings from SQM which confirm that both of these Funds are superior.”

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Alex François

The William Blair Emerging Markets Leaders Fund (the Fund) has been rated by investment services research house, Lonsec.

In its Fund Review, Lonsec said the Fund’s strengths include, “the Manager’s history of managing emerging markets portfolios”, “a quality portfolio management team, motivated analyst research pool, disciplined stable investment process” and the Manager’s “track record of maintaining a conservative approach to capacity management”.

William Blair Head of Australian and New Zealand Institutional Distribution, Alex Francois said the rating reinforces the benefits of William Blair’s highly active, unconstrained quality growth approach to portfolio management of emerging markets equities.

“We value the ratings process undertaken by Lonsec and believe the Fund will add significant value within a diversified portfolio,” he said. “We believe emerging markets continue to be an area that in the medium to long term will feature in most people’s investment horizon and the Fund offers Australian investors access to those attractive developing markets that continue to benefit from exposure to global themes, like favourable demographic growth.”

Lonsec described William Blair as “a fundamental, active investment firm applying an investment philosophy that seeks to invest in quality growth companies” and added that, “this focus typically results in the Fund exhibiting heightened growth style characteristic relative to the benchmark”. Lonsec also noted that “the fund is a ‘long’ only emerging markets/regional equities product and, as such, will generally sit within the growth component of a balanced portfolio”.

Lonsec believes the Fund suitable for high-risk profile investors with a 5+ year investment time horizon.

Mr Francois said, “We believe that Lonsec’s analysis of the Fund provides industry professionals with the information required to make an informed decision on the inclusion of the William Blair Emerging Markets Leaders Fund to enhance a diversified equity portfolio.”

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Alex François

Australian investors will have greater global investment choices following the launch yesterday of William Blair’s first unit trusts in Australia.

The Chicago-based asset manager has opened its Global Leaders Equity Fund, Emerging Market Leaders Equity Fund and its Dynamic Diversified Allocation Fund to Australian institutional and wholesale investors (via platforms).

William Blair’s Global Head of Distribution, Dan Charles, said the launch of the trusts is indicative of William Blair’s desire to provide the Australian market with an opportunity to tap into the expertise of portfolio managers around the globe in the areas of global equities, emerging markets and dynamic asset allocation strategies.

“William Blair’s quality growth, bottom-up investment style looks to long-term consistent quality growth in the asset classes of global equities and emerging markets, with a style that is competitive with all of the biggest players in the Australian market,” Mr Charles said. “We look for certain characteristics – the fundamental aspects of an organisation or a company that will give long term consistent quality growth. We only use benchmarks as a reference guide, never as a guiding principle for how we invest.”

Head of Australia and New Zealand Institutional Distribution, Alex François, said William Blair’s unit trusts offer Australian investors access to broader global equity market leaders and to industry sectors and themes that may not be accessible via the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) – something that, arguably, Australians need even more than United States and European investors, because of the comparatively small size of the Australian market.

“Investors in the developed world, which is now in recovery, need greater exposure to global geopolitical themes,” Mr François said. “We look at the macroeconomic viewpoints of these themes and implement them within a portfolio that provides a total return. Emerging markets also continue to be an area that in the medium to long term will have to feature in most people’s investment horizon and will be able to via our trusts.”

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Mr Singer, a leading expert on global macro-economics who visited Australia last week from William Blair’s head office in Chicago, said current geopolitical events give fewer people greater influence.

“This affects market prices and impacts the performance of portfolios,” he said.

To help navigate the turbulence between existing opportunities and ultimate performance, William Blair’s DAS team has devised Game Theory.

“Game Theory provides a framework for making sense of current geopolitical and macroeconomic developments,” Mr Singer said, “And for assessing why prices deviate from values to help determine if investment opportunities provide enough compensation for the risk involved.”

Mr Singer, a pioneer in advancing the active management of multi-asset and currency portfolios, said William Blair’s DAS team positions portfolios to benefit from or protect against potential displays of power.

“We seek short-term opportunities to modify the timing and magnitude of investment positions and benefit from the inevitable long-term movement of market prices toward fundamental values,” he said. “We then position the portfolio to take advantage of the opportunity or to eliminate the risk.”

While William Blair has used Game Theory informally in the past, the process has now been systematized and is an integral part of William Blair’s three-stage DAS investment process.

“We now employ Game Theory across our Macro Allocation Fund, DDA SICAV and private funds,” Mr Singer said.

William Blair has an Australian and New Zealand presence, headed up by Australian executive, Alex Francois.

“During my recent visit Down Under, Australian institutional investors showed keen interest in Game Theory,” Mr Singer said. “We are looking forward to working with them.”

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Mr François is a highly respected professional with more than 20 years of experience working with institutional investors throughout Australia and New Zealand, and brings with him a deep working knowledge of investment management requirements and portfolio implementation. He will report to Dan Charles, global head of business development and client service.

“Alex has a proven track record of leading investment management businesses in the Australian market and we are extremely pleased that he has joined our team,” said Michelle Seitz, CFA, head of William Blair Investment Management and a member of the firm’s executive committee. “Despite the volatile markets, William Blair has been fortunate to have long-term consistent performance of its investment strategies, and we are excited about the opportunity to serve a fast-growing and sophisticated client base in Australia and New Zealand.”

Mr François added, “I was attracted to William Blair’s impressive track record across various investment strategies, which I believe are well-suited for the Australian and New Zealand institutional market.”

Mr François spent the last two years as head of distribution-investments at Provident Capital Limited in Sydney, Australia. Before that, he was a managing director, head of sales and marketing for Principal Global Investors Australia for six years, where he was responsible for the successful relaunch of Principal in Australia following the sale of BT to Westpac. Prior to his position at Principal, Mr. François held senior roles at Schroders Investment Management Australia, Deutsche Asset Management, and ING NZ Ltd. He received his M.B.A. and a graduate diploma of funds management from Macquarie University.

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