Fidelity European Hi Yld A-Dis-EUR

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|11/04/2024

by Jeana Marie Doubell
A skilled lead manager duo, supported by an expanding analyst team, ply a straightforward bottom-up process, earning Fidelity European High Yield an Above Average People rating and Average Process rating.

Veteran lead managers Andrei Gorodilov and James Durance have worked closely together on this strategy for seven years, and each boasts more than two decades of investing experience. They are supported by US high-yield chief Peter Khan and backed by Fidelity’s vast 44-member credit analyst team, which includes 22 London-based analysts (up from 16 analysts in 2021, as the firm has boosted its research capabilities).

Gorodilov and Durance aim to outperform their benchmark, the ICE BofA Global High Yield European Issuers Constrained Index, primarily through a combination of security selection, sector allocation, and top-down credit market calls. Decisions are made through consensus; if the two disagree about a position’s size, they split the difference. A number of guardrails are in place here: The portfolio is typically spread across 175 issuers, with single positions rarely breaching 3%, and sector over- and underweightings are limited to roughly 5% relative to the benchmark. Still, the fund has its riskier qualities. For example, its benchmark features a roughly 10% stake in US-dollar-denominated Eastern European and Turkish corporate debt (Russia was removed from the benchmark in 2022), but the team has kept the portfolio’s exposure to emerging markets below that of its benchmark for the past five years. In addition, the managers prefer a slightly higher level of credit market sensitivity (measured by the portfolio’s average duration times spread) than the benchmark in a typical market environment. The team actively manages those risks, for example, by bringing the portfolio’s overall level of credit risk below that of the benchmark during the second and third quarters of 2022 amidst higher inflation and rate volatility.

While performance was stung by overweight stakes in defaulted issuers in the past, the team has generated positive results since then, and the fund’s investment process has delivered category-beating returns under this team’s leadership and over the long term. However, our conviction is tempered by the fund’s historically higher default exposure relative to its peers.
 
Morningstar Medalist Rating™An experienced and stable team guide this strategy.
To find out how Morningstar rates a fund click here.
Morningstar Pillars
PeopleAbove Average
ParentAbove Average
ProcessAverage
 
Morningstar Medalist RatingMorningstar assigns the Medalist Rating to funds that are qualitatively and quantitatively assessed through manager research and algorithmic processes. The assessment turns on three key “pillars” – People, Process, and Parent – that yield an estimate of how well a fund will perform before fees but after adjusting for risk.
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