Russell continues global push
In a move to increase its focus on global investment managers, Russell Investment Group has appointed two new global managers to the Russell International Shares Fund.
The new managers, Altrinsic Global Advisors LLC (Altrinsic) and Alliance Capital Management L.P (Alliance) will both manage 10 per cent of the Russell International Shares Fund, increasing the weighting of global mandates in the fund to 30 per cent at the expense of EAFE and US equity mandates.
The new group appointments follow the recent signing of global growth manager T. Rowe Price to the Russell Global Opportunities Fund.
Kathy Cave, portfolio manager with Russell Investment Group, said the movement towards global mandates helped facilitate a freer stock selection environment.
“Global equity managers have shifted their focus from country lines to sector lines allowing them to pick the best ideas on a global basis. Global managers typically take a more aggressive position on stocks and sectors, meaning the potential for higher returns is increased,” Cave said.
Altrinsic’s investment style functions on a global value basis — focusing on companies, industry depth and global frame of reference. Employing a bottom-up, fundamentals-focused discipline, Altrinsic emphasises drivers of operating returns and stock valuation. Its portfolio management team incorporates managers that have spent time at global financial firms of varying sizes and structures.
Alliance has approximately US$717 billion in assets under management, with a team offering regional and global expertise.
“The cross-border approach of these two, high confidence global managers offers a different and complementary source of potential excess returns to the regional strategies already employed in the fund,” she said.
The Russell International Shares Fund was opened on December 31, 1997, and seeks to provide a total return higher than the MSCI World Net Dividends Reinvested Accumulation Index. It employs a multi-manager, multi-style approach, and aims to provide exposure to a diversified portfolio of international shares. At present the fund employs multiple managers running a combination of US, EAFE and MSCI World assignments.
Other managers in the Fund include: Bernstein Investment Research and Management (17.5 per cent); MFS Institutional Advisors (17.5 per cent); Institutional Capital Corporation (11.6 per cent); Jacobs Levy Equity Management (12.6 per cent); Ark Asset Management (5.4 per cent); Turner Investment Partners (5.4 per cent); and the Russell Global Opportunities Fund (10 per cent).
Russell Investment Group advises clients on more than $3.2 trillion in assets and delivers investment programs to more than 2,000 institutional clients in 44 countries. Russell manages approximately $248 billion in assets in a variety of multi-manager funds.
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