BT’s Putnam decision gets tick from InvestorWeb
InvestorWebhas reacted toBT Funds Management’sdecision to outsource its global equities management to the US based Putnam group by awarding a “buy” recommendation to BT’s international funds.
The research house says it considers the move a “logical” one given that Putnam is already established as the manager of international equities forSagitta Rothschild. InvestorWeb also looks favourably at the choice as it judges Putnam to be a sound manager of international shares, particularly in the value and core styles.
The buy recommendation is to be applied to the BT funds after the transition into the Westpac fold is completed.
As well, Investorweb awarded Sagitta Rothschild a “strong buy” and “buy” rating for its core and value style international funds managed by Putnam.
However, with key figures leaving both BT and Sagitta after their acquisition by Westpac, InvestorWeb has placed a “sell” recommendation on both BT’s and Sagitta’s Australian equities funds.
The loss of Marcus Fanning from BT’s Australian equities team and the transition of the BT Australian equity portfolios across to Sagitta Rothschild by the end of November has led InvestorWeb to recommend selling out of Australian equity funds. Additionally, the research house notes that “the performance of the Sagitta Rothschild Australian equity fund has fallen off since the takeover by Westpac”.
For the defensive asset classes, BT had its property securities and Australian fixed interest funds on put on hold by Investorweb, while Sagitta’s funds in this class were given a buy and strong buy rating respectively. BT’s international fixed interest and diversified funds were placed on sell notices, while these funds got a hold recommendation for Sagitta Rothschild.
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