Emma Wall: Hello and welcome to the Morningstar series, "Ask the Expert." I'm Emma Wall and I'm joined today by Muna Abu-Habsa.
Hello Muna.
Muna Abu-Habsa: Hello.
Wall: So, you are a fund analyst here at Morningstar and one of the sectors that you look at is global funds. That's what we are going to focus on today and I believe you have three that are highly rated by Morningstar. What's the first?
Abu-Habsa: The first is GAM Global Diversified. It's a large cap value-biased fund. It's got one of the longest standing managers in its category. Andrew Green has run the fund since its launch in 1984.
Wall: And it does have quite a unique process, doesn't it? He looks for really deep value stocks.
Abu-Habsa: That's right. So, he is looking for stocks that have excessively negative sentiment but with a catalyst for change.
Wall: Does that mean that it can be quite volatile though? I mean, you've said he has run the fund for quite a considerable amount of time, but over that time has it been quite a bumpy ride?
Abu-Habsa: It has indeed and so he has got a very long-term mindset and investors considering this fund need to share that long-term investment horizon. So, since launch actually the fund has done exceptionally well relative to its peers but along the way there has been extended periods of relative underperformance.
Wall: What's the second fund today?
Abu-Habsa: It's Fidelity Global Special Situations.
Wall: Who is that run by?
Abu-Habsa: So, that's run by Jeremy Podger. His tenure on the fund isn't as long. He only joined Fidelity in March 2012 to cover this fund. However, he came with excellent track records at other funds that he has run previously dating back to 1997 and they are funds that we have followed.
Wall: He has quite a unique process as well. He looks for three very different types of companies to put in the fund, doesn't he?
Abu-Habsa: Yes. So, he is looking at three different types of special situations, exceptional value, corporate change and unique businesses and that breadth gives him or gives the portfolio a good balance and a good chance of outperforming across different types of market environments which indeed it has today.
Wall: He does have an overlay of shorting it, doesn't he? And that's something that's quite difficult for fund managers to get right. It can actually accentuate losses but you are confident with him at this point?
Abu-Habsa: Yes. So, the fund does have the ability to short and he makes use of that at the margin. We think he has the right skillset and support to manage those positions effectively though.
Wall: And it should be just be something that investors are aware of?
Abu-Habsa: Yes. That's right.
Wall: What's the third fund?
Abu-Habsa: The third fund is Rathbone Global Opportunities. Now, this is very different because it's got one of the strongest growth profiles across global equity funds that we cover.
Wall: And it's run by a man who likes to ignore the benchmark, isn't it?
Abu-Habsa: Yes. So, James Thomson has run the fund since 2003 with admirable consistency but it's very much benchmark agnostic. He is very clear about the types of businesses that he likes to invest in. He likes easy-to-understand businesses that are in control of their own destiny. So, when you look at the portfolio, there is no exposure to utilities or telecoms, very little in materials and significant overweight in consumer-related stocks.
Wall: Muna, thank you very much.
Abu-Habsa: Thank you.
Wall: This is Emma Wall for Morningstar. Thank you for watching.