BGF World Healthscience E2 (EUR)

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|09/11/2023

by Ramanand Kothari
Jeff Lee, director and co-portfolio manager on the Health Sciences Team, has departed BlackRock effective June 27. Lee's research responsibilities will be assumed by existing team members. Lee, with BlackRock since 2011, was promoted to co-portfolio manager in 2021.

Erin Xie is the lead manager and a key individual for the strategy. She has been manager on the BlackRock Health Sciences Opportunities fund since July 2003 and the Luxembourg-domiciled strategy since April 2011, providing a stable anchor to the fund. She has managed to build a solid track record and has a team of experienced professionals who can offer strong technical/scientific expertise along with an investment one. Xiang Liu, also promoted as the second co-portfolio manager of the strategy in 2021, remains the co-portfolio manager for the fund. He has worked with Xie as both a research analyst and co-portfolio manager since 2008.

While Lee’s departure is a loss, the fund will still have Xie at the helm as well as one experienced co-portfolio manager. Also, the Health Sciences platform has expanded, and the team of nine experienced investment professionals has continued to grow, having added three additional team members over the last two years. We think the team can absorb Lee's role and responsibilities effectively, and this departure does not affect our earlier assessment of Above Average People rating and Average Process rating.
 
BGF World Healthscience is a compelling global healthcare option run by a seasoned investor and a well-resourced team that employs a well-tuned bottom-up investment approach. The strategy retains its People and Process Pillar ratings of Above Average and Average, respectively.

Erin Xie has been at the helm of this strategy since April 2011 and brings a wealth of experience investing in healthcare over 29 years. Xie is the head of the health sciences team at BlackRock and has managed the U.S.-domiciled BlackRock Health Sciences Opportunities since 2003. Previously, she was a healthcare portfolio manager at State Street Research & Management and a research associate at Sanford Bernstein for the pharmaceutical industry. She receives support from a dedicated team consisting of a comanager and six analysts with an average industry experience of 18-plus years, allowing them to delve deeper into the science behind the treatments. Additionally, the team draws upon the substantial healthcare resources at BlackRock.

The team employs a sensible process encompassing industry growth dynamics under the prevailing macro and regulatory backdrop and tries to identify the most attractive parts of the healthcare universe. Following this, an in-depth analysis is performed on stocks to identify stock-specific drivers within subsectors. While identifying stocks, the team looks for companies with innovative product pipelines, high-quality management teams, and strong fundamentals. For a dedicated healthcare strategy, this portfolio is relatively well-diversified across several subsectors and is less reliant on a single segment of the market to drive outperformance. This results in a more balanced and benchmark-aware approach relative to some sector peers, with below-average exposure to volatile biotech stocks and smaller caps.



Under Xie's leadership, from April 2011 through October 2023, relative and absolute returns have been strong. The D clean share class has outperformed both its benchmark and peers by 0.7% and 2.6%, respectively. The performance has been consistent and driven by a combination of stock selection and allocation across various subsectors.
 
Morningstar Medalist Rating™A well-diversified global healthcare offering.
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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