Brett Diment: December 2005 e-fundresearch.com: What is the current size of the fund?
Brett Diment: $2.7 billion
e-fundresearch.com: What is the total amount of assets you manage currently?
Brett Diment: As at 31 December 2012 the Emerging Market Debt team managed assets totaling over $8.5 billion in Emerging Market Blended, Local Currency, Hard Currency and Corporate portfolios.
e-fundresearch.com: How long have you been in the business as a fund manager?
Brett Diment: I joined the industry in 1991.
e-fundresearch.com: What are the main steps in your investment process and in which area is your competitive edge to add value to investors?
Brett Diment: Our competitive advantages are:
- Well established emerging market franchise in both debt and equity - with a local presence in many of the markets in which we invest, we have over 70 EM investment professionals worldwide.
- Robust long term performance - we have been at the forefront of EMD investing since 1993.
- Strong research focus - we research over 50 countries and 1,000 companies worldwide.
- Established, clear and accountable investment process - we conduct our own proprietary research using both qualitative and quantitative inputs and focus on forward-looking measures of risk.
- Broad range of investments - we build diversified portfolios, capturing opportunities across the universe including; sovereign and corporate, external and domestic debt, derivatives and foreign exchange.
- Strong team culture - we have an experienced, stable and well-resourced team with a broad range of specialist skills across the asset class.
e-fundresearch.com: Which benchmark is most relevant and how should investors compare the fund vs. benchmarks or peer groups?
Brett Diment: JPM EMBI GD USD
Our fund is a fully diversified EMD strategy managed against a hard currency benchmark, with off-index exposure to local currency and hard currency corporate bonds. There is a maximum of 20% per country and 2% relative to benchmark for smaller countries (these are tend to be off benchmark holdings or represent less than 2% of the index). We generally expect to have a minimum of 25 countries in the fund. Our off-benchmark exposure to local currency debt is unlikely to exceed 40%, similarly our allocation to hard currency corporate debt could reach up to 20%.
e-fundresearch.com: Which performance did you achieve for the fund YTD and over the past five calendar years in absolute terms and relative to relevant benchmark or other reference indices?
Brett Diment: Over the last year (to 31 December 2012) the returned 19.2% outperforming the benchmark (17.4%) and peer group (15.1%). Over five years the Fund increased by 9.3% per annum compared to a rise of 10.1% from the benchmark and 7.6% from the peer group.
e-fundresearch.com: Many Thanks!
