The winners of the sixth annual Morningstar European Fund Manager of the Year Awards were announced in Amsterdam on 19 March 2015. These awards draw upon the qualitative analysis of our manager research team to recognise the best fund managers.
Each award winner has demonstrated excellent stewardship of their fund shareholders' capital over the long term, achieving best-in-class outcomes for investors. Our congratulations go to the winners.
The 2015 winners are:
Manager of the Year: European Equity
Michael Fraikin, Thorsten Paarman & Team
Invesco Pan European Structured Equity
Morningstar Analyst Rating: Silver
Lead managers Michael Fraikin and Thorsten Paarman are part of a group, Invesco Quantitative Strategies, which features more than 40 experienced professionals who continuously develop and refine the quantitative methodologies at the heart of this fund’s stock-selection approach. The team’s breadth and experience is key to our confidence. With their approach in place since September 2006, the team has built an outstanding long-term record. Indeed, the returns of Invesco Pan European Structured Equity are among the best in the Morningstar Europe Large-Cap Blend Equity Category, while remaining one of the least-volatile offerings. The fund has displayed superior resilience in difficult market environments but this is not its only strength, as evidenced by its showing in 2014 when it delivered top-decile returns, bolstered notably by good stock selection results across most selection criteria.
Manager of the Year: Global Equity
Vincent Strauss & Wojciech Stanislawski
Comgest Growth Emerging Markets and Magellan
Morningstar Analyst Rating: Gold and Gold
Vincent Strauss and Wojciech Stanislawski are veteran emerging-markets investors, having managed emerging-markets equity portfolios at Comgest for more than 20 and 15 years, respectively. Strauss and Stanislawski have never departed from their stringent investment criteria. This has sometimes proved challenging, in particular during momentum-driven markets when their strategy is most likely to underperform. Over time, however, this has produced one of the most compelling risk/return trade-offs in the Morningstar Global Emerging Markets Equity Category. Last year was no exception; their funds landed comfortably in the top quartile as the strategy proved highly rewarding during the second half of the year when volatility surged. Strauss and Stanislawski are not only great investors, but they are also fantastic stewards of investors’ capital. As such, they have never hesitated, for instance, to discourage investors from entering their funds when they thought emerging markets were ahead of themselves.
Manager of the Year: European Fixed-Income
Philippe Igigabel
Morningstar Analyst Rating: Silver
Philippe Igigabel has an exceptional tenure at HBSC GIF Euro High Yield Bond, having served as the fund’s co-manager since 2000 before taking over as lead portfolio manager in 2003. He thus boasts one of the longest individual track records in the European high-yield space. Igigabel applies a high-conviction approach that is best illustrated by the fund’s overweight in subordinated financial issues, initiated in 2009. He stood behind this approach even in periods when it was out of favour, such as 2011, which enabled investors to fully reap the fund’s long-term benefits: over three-, five- and 10-year periods to the end of January 2015, the fund ranks in its category’s top quartile. In 2014, a difficult year for high-yield investors given the market sell-off during the third quarter, the fund outpaced 90 per cent of its competitors. In addition to his excellent long-term performance record, Igigabel demonstrates above-average stewardship through his personal investment in the fund, which strengthens the alignment of his interests with those of investors.
