Pictet-Emerging Local Ccy Dbt R dm USD

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|23/04/2025

by Arvind Subramanian
Pictet has announced that Mary-Therese Barton, head of Emerging Markets Debt at the firm, will be promoted to the role of head of Emerging Markets Fixed Income as of Aug. 1, 2022. Barton currently leads the 17-member team of portfolio managers and analysts responsible for the firm’s global and regional emerging-markets sovereign debt strategies. She now steps into a newly created role that adds an additional layer of oversight between the Emerging Markets Debt team leaders and Fixed Income CIO Raymond Sagayam. Previously, the heads of the Emerging Market Sovereign Debt, Emerging Market Corporate Debt, and greater China bond teams reported directly to the CIO; now they will report to Barton, who reports to Sagayam.

Portfolio manager Alper Gocer, who has served as the Emerging Market Sovereign team’s asset-class leader for local-currency emerging-markets debt since 2018, will take over from Barton as head of that team as of Aug. 1, 2022.

These changes are relevant to three strategies currently rated by Morningstar:

Pictet-Emerging Local Currency Debt, which is managed day to day by Gocer. This strategy has People and Process Pillar Ratings of Above Average, and Morningstar Analyst Ratings of Neutral for all share classes.

Pictet-Global Emerging Debt, which is managed day to day by Guido Chamorro and Robert Simpson. This strategy has a People Pillar rating of Above Average, a Process Pillar rating of Average, and Morningstar Analyst Ratings ranging from Bronze to Neutral.

Pictet-Asian Local Currency Debt, which is managed day to day by Carrie Liaw and Ali Bora Yigitbasioglu. The strategy and has People and Process Pillar Ratings of Average and its Morningstar Analyst Ratings range from Neutral to Negative.

The announced changes do not affect our fundamental view of these strategies’ capabilities and processes. All three strategies are managed within Pictet’s tight-knit Emerging Market Sovereign team, whose eight portfolio managers work collaboratively to implement investment ideas across their several portfolios and who are well-equipped to weather the reshuffle. Although Gocer’s workload has increased with his new administrative responsibilities, he is well supported by the rest of the team in managing the Emerging Local Currency Debt strategy and can be expected to effectively balance his new duties with running that portfolio. At all three strategies, Barton is expected to continue to contribute her macro views and to oversee the investment process alongside her new duties. We therefore maintain our conviction in the strategies’ current ratings.
 
Pictet Emerging Local Currency Debt is managed by an experienced leadership team and follows a deeply collaborative investment process.

Morningstar has enhanced the way we assess alpha opportunity for funds, which is a key component in our Morningstar Medalist Rating calculation. More of this strategy's Medalist Ratings than usual may therefore change with this update even in the absence of changes to pillar ratings or fund costs.

The strategy is spearheaded by Alper Gocer, an emerging-markets veteran with more than two decades of investment experience, who has been at the helm since joining the firm in 2018. In October 2023, Gocer was elevated to the position of the head of emerging-markets fixed income, succeeding Mary-Therese Barton, who assumed the position of fixed-income chief investment officer within the firm. Following this transition, Barton relinquished her role as a comanager here, which was then assumed by fellow emerging-markets sovereign team members Adriana Cristea, Carrie Liaw, and Ali Bora Yigitbasioglu. The trio shares a deep understanding of the firm's investment process, having each contributed to this strategy for at least the past five years. Cristea is a local rates and currency specialist focused on ex-Asian countries, while Liaw and Yigitbasioglu focus on Asian rates and currency, respectively.



This strategy aims to outperform its JPMorgan Government Bond Index Emerging Markets Global Diversified Index benchmark by 1 to 3 percentage points annually and has the flexibility to invest up to 30% of the portfolio in off-benchmark fare (mainly developed-markets debt and currencies). The investment process blends the team’s top-down macro-outlook with bottom-up views on individual sovereign issuers in a collaborative approach involving the entire emerging-markets sovereign debt team.

The strategy stumbled in 2023 and 2024 because of misplaced duration bets in the US and select Latin American countries. Nevertheless, its long-term track record under Gocer's leadership remains solid, the team having adeptly navigated a wide range of investment environments—a testament to its talent for macroanalysis.
 
Morningstar Medalist Rating™An appealing emerging-markets debt offering.
To find out how Morningstar rates a fund click here.
Morningstar Pillars
PeopleAbove Average
ParentAbove Average
ProcessAbove 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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