From firm focus to rolling success
The Legg Mason Brandywine Global Opportunistic Fixed Income Trust has taken out the Global Fixed Income category in the Money Management/Lonsec Fund Manager of the Year Awards.
The success comes as Brandywine, the underlying investment manager and a subsidiary of Legg Mason, took a number of underweight positions in some of the largest indebted countries and were overweight in others where the best real yield opportunities existed, according to Legg Mason Australia head of sales, Beau Titchkosky.
Brandywine had been the top performer in its peer group over one, two, and three years to March 2015, according to Titchkosky.
The strong returns did not come from excessive risk-taking but from deviating from the fixed income benchmark and focusing on identifying real yields across the globe.
"The unconstrained style has resonated with financial advisers wanting a global fixed income strategy that is designed to seek out opportunities in a challenging environment, particularly if interest rates rise," Titchkosky said.
Franklin Templeton senior vice president and director of fixed interest, John Beck, believes the Franklin Templeton Global Aggregate Bond Fund was a finalist due to good understanding of financial history, which avoided falling into the consensus trap that interest rates were rising.
Beck said this financial history lead Franklin Templeton to go short into the Taper Trap period, which was a key decision as Europe slowed and allowed it to be less pessimistic than its peers.
"Our interaction with risk colleagues was critical as were the local asset management teams around the world. It has been a stable team, all with 20 to 30 years' experience, we know how each other think and we are about being in the right place at the right time and knowing when to step off," Beck said.
The PIMCO EQT Wholesale Global Bond Fund was also a finalist with managing director and product manager David Fisher stating the consistency of performance for the fund was as important as the performance itself.
He said PIMCO had stayed true to label recognising that clients used the fund in portfolios for specific purposes and relied on it to deliver to those expectations consistently over time.
Fisher said PIMCO drew upon dedicated regional and sector specialist teams to provide information for the everyday management of portfolios and this team approach “has always been a stalwart of the PIMCO way to managing global fixed interest and it’s an approach that we believe we have done very well”.
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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