DWS Invest Euro High Yield Corp FC

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|16/10/2023

by Thomas De Fauw
DWS Euro High Yield Corporates’ experienced manager, solid bottom-up investment process, and strong long-term track record continue to merit People and Process Pillar ratings of Above Average.

Per Wehrmann has been the lead portfolio manager of this strategy since 2006 and boasts more than 20 years’ experience in European high-yield bonds, both as an analyst and as a portfolio manager. The team backing him has seen some turnover in recent years but retains our confidence overall. The deputy portfolio manager for this strategy changed in October 2015 when Nicole Wichmann took over from Kyle Kloc. Wichmann has 22 years of experience and joined from Union Investment, where she successfully ran a global high-yield strategy for three years.

The manager focuses on high-yield bonds denominated in euros with moderate exposure to CCC rated bonds and nonbank financials (both below 10% over the past three years). Since 2011, Wehrmann has occasionally bought index protection to partially hedge the fund’s market exposure in rough market phases. The manager generally ensures the portfolio remains well diversified across sectors and issuers. Even though he seeks to keep most of its assets in relatively liquid, highly traded assets, the fund can at times have a notable share of assets in small issues. In the first quarter of 2020, this caused some headaches, as the manager had to liquidate quality assets to meet outflows. At the end of July 2023, just around 8% of assets were invested in bonds with an issue size lower than EUR 300 million.

Since the manager took over in January 2006 through the end of September 2023, the fund outperformed its category peers by 0.7 percentage points per year. On a risk-adjusted basis, it lands in the top fifth percentile over the past decade despite higher volatility. The fund’s FC share class also outperformed its benchmark, the ICE BofAML Euro BB-B Rated Non-Financial Fixed & Floating Rate High Yield Constrained Index over the trailing three-, five-, and 10-year periods.

 
Morningstar Medalist Rating™This strategy rests on solid foundations.
To find out how Morningstar rates a fund click here.
Morningstar Pillars
PeopleAbove Average
ParentAverage
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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