GS Emerging Markets Eq I Acc USD |



by Andrew Daniels

Hiren Dasani, comanager of Goldman Sachs Emerging Markets Equity, will leave the firm at the end of June 2025. He joined Goldman Sachs Asset Management in 2007 and has 24 years of experience overall. Dasani has served as a comanager here—and lead manager on Goldman Sachs India Equity—since 2017. The loss of Dasani is disappointing, considering he is in the prime of his investing career, but fellow manager Basak Yavuz provides continuity. Yavuz, who has 25 years of experience, joined Goldman Sachs in 2011 and was appointed comanager here in 2015. According to the firm, there are no plans to name another manager on this strategy. Yavuz continues to get support from the firm’s 25-member emerging-markets equity team; it is experienced but has battled turnover issues in the past. This strategy’s Average People and Process ratings remain intact, as do its Morningstar Medalist Ratings. |
Goldman Sachs Emerging Markets Equity has some strengths that are offset by some uncertainties. A one-notch drop in the Morningstar Medalist Ratings of a few Luxembourg-domiciled share classes isn’t because of a change in conviction in the team or approach but rather reflects a change in the way Morningstar calculates excess return opportunities. This strategy boasts experienced and capable leadership. New York-based Basak Yavuz joined as a comanager in February 2015, while Singapore-based Hiren Dasani came aboard in May 2017. Both managers have solid credentials, possessing 20-plus years of experience and rising through the ranks at Goldman Sachs Asset Management before assuming their current duties, which also include comanaging emerging-markets ex-China and environmental, social, and governance emerging-markets mandates. Dasani also leads an India equity strategy. But questions persist on the supporting staff. To be sure, it’s a sizable and experienced group of about 25 sitting in offices all over the world, including New York, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mumbai. While the team was encouragingly stable in 2024, they have faced turnover issues in the past, including 2019, 2021, and 2023. Leadership has tended to backfill most departures with experienced personnel, but the strength of the investment culture remains a point of uncertainty. The process is also less distinct than it once was. The team continues to seek 100-150 fundamentally sound businesses trading at discounts to their intrinsic values, but it has mostly abandoned its small/mid-cap emphasis (relative to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index) that had once been a key driver of returns. Unfortunately, that came as assets piled into the strategy: As assets approached its initial capacity estimate of USD 10 billion in 2020, the team doubled capacity to at least USD 20 billion. The portfolio continues to own some lesser-known names, although active share declined to 63% from 80% between December 2016 and December 2024 (which is now lower than most diversified emerging-markets Morningstar Category peers). The strategy has a respectable long-term record, but it has struggled in recent years. In the trailing three years through January 2025, the US vehicle’s institutional shares lost 5.2% annualized, significantly worse than the core index’s 0.7% loss and 90.0% of its category peers. It also lagged the 2.3% loss for the MSCI Emerging Markets Growth Index, another relevant benchmark given the strategy’s growth tilt. |
Morningstar Pillars | |
People | Average |
Parent | Average |
Process | Average |
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