BGF Euro Short Duration Bond E2 EUR

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|10/04/2024

by Evangelia Gkeka
BGF Euro Short Duration Bond has been placed under review because of the departure announcement of lead portfolio manager Michael Krautzberger. The following text was published on July 13, 2023.

BGF Euro Short Duration Bond benefits from the depth, quality, and experience of its management team, the disciplined and established process applied over the years, and a consistent long-term track record.

Michael Krautzberger, head of BlackRock's euro fixed-income team, has managed the strategy since June 2006. His experience in managing global fixed-income portfolios and working as part of large fixed-income teams is particularly relevant. His expertise is in combining the team's views, analysts' relative value ideas, and inputs from BlackRock's wider resources into a portfolio that takes an appropriate level of risk for its performance objective. Since January 2015 he is backed by comanager Christopher Allen, who has worked with him for 18 years. In August 2019 Jozef Prokes, a team member for 10 years, was added as comanager, though he left the firm in July 2021. We believe his departure is not a concern given that ultimate decision-maker Krautzberger remains in place and the fund is managed with a team approach.

The investment approach is centered on building a portfolio of diversified risks and adding value in a consistent, incremental manner through a range of primarily relative value strategies. At least 70% of assets will be invested in bonds with a duration of less than 5.0 years, and the average duration will not exceed 3.0 years. The managers are cognisant of the benchmark but can also have modest exposure to off-benchmark positions. The portfolio is well-diversified and employs 40-60 relative value investment ideas at a time. A mix of cash and credit default swaps has been used to good effect as part of managing liquidity. The fund has delivered strong returns over Krautzberger's tenure. The clean share class (D2 EUR) outpaced its EUR diversified bond short-term Morningstar Category peers as well as its category index on an absolute and risk-adjusted basis since its inception in 2007 and up to the end of May 2023. The breadth of added value across virtually the entire range of underlying ideas is impressive and highlights both Krautzberger's ability to blend the positioning into a coherent portfolio and the quality of ideas generated by the team. During the very difficult 2022 the strategy recorded its worst annual return at negative 5.2%, underperforming its EUR diversified bond short-term Morningstar category by 0.6% and its category index by 0.3%. Underperformance mainly came from the first half of the year as a short in U.K. inflation detracted, and spread widening had a negative impact on its credit allocations. Relative performance improved year-to-date as of end-May 2023 as the strategy benefited from a variety of sources of outperformance including duration, sector selection, and off-benchmark allocations in securitized.
 
Morningstar Medalist Rating™Remains one of our top choices within its peer group.
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Morningstar Pillars
ParentAbove Average
 
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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