Fidelity Germany A-Dis-EUR

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|03/07/2023

by Natalia Wolfstetter
Effective 30 Sept 2023, the portfolio managers of Fidelity Germany will switch roles, with the current comanager Tom Ackermans stepping up as lead portfolio manager, while Christian von Engelbrechten, who has been serving as the lead manager of the strategy since 2011, will take over the role as comanager. At the same time, he will start managing Pan-European equity portfolios. This includes the appointment as nondiscretionary advisor on Fidelity Europe, a role similar to a co-portfolio manager. It means von Engelbrechten will spend less time on the German equity strategy, and after a 12-month transition period, he is expected to no longer be involved in the day-to-day management of the strategy.

During his 15-year investment career, Ackermans has covered various sectors, including US payments, financial technology and exchanges, European banks, and integrated oil and oil services. From February 2019 to February 2021, he was involved in running Fidelity Euro Blue Chip. Aside from that, his portfolio management experience is limited to his comanager role at Fidelity Germany, which he assumed in August 2021.

We are placing the strategy under review as we assess the impact of these significant changes. The strategy previously carried a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Gold for cheaper share classes, while pricier retail share classes were rated Bronze.

 
Upcoming changes in the management setup reduce our conviction in the strategy, resulting in a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral across all share classes.

Effective 30 September 2023, the portfolio managers of Fidelity Germany will switch roles, with the current comanager Tom Ackermans stepping up as lead portfolio manager, while Christian von Engelbrechten, who has been serving as the lead manager of the strategy since 2011, will take over the role as comanager. This was unexpected given that Ackermans has only been involved with the fund since August 2021. The reshuffle was triggered by the upcoming manager departure at Fidelity Europe, where von Engelbrechten will assume a comanager role alongside Vincent Durel. It means von Engelbrechten will spend less time on the German equity strategy, and eventually, after a 12-month transition period, he is expected to no longer be formally involved in the day-to-day running of the German equity strategy but will continue to provide support as needed. At this stage, the firm is not planning to appoint a new comanager, hence, direct support to the strategy will be reduced. Ackermans is a seasoned analyst, but his portfolio management experience is limited. While we draw comfort from Fidelity’s research firepower and the continued presence of von Engelbrechten, we have yet to gain confidence in Ackermans as a lead portfolio manager given his lack of track record. Hence, the People rating is lowered to Average from Above Average.

Fundamental company research is at the heart of the approach, and here the managers rely extensively on Fidelity’s Europe-equity analysts, who provide in-depth coverage of the fund’s investment universe (HDAX). They seek quality firms with healthy balance sheets and clear competitive advantages who can deliver strong structural growth, as reflected in an above-average return on invested capital and profit growth. Yet the approach is not applied dogmatically. While the quality growth bias is clearly reflected in the portfolio through above-average growth, quality, and valuation metrics, it has been reined in since the fund suffered a severe underperformance in the value-oriented market of 2016. We believe this makes sense within the limited investment universe of a German equity fund. It curbed, though didn’t prevent, the fund’s underperformance amid the recovery of value stocks in the past three years. Thanks to the quality bias, however, the fund has often been more resilient than peers in challenging conditions, including the 2022 downturn.

The approach is well-designed and proven, and the new lead manager is expected to maintain its core principles, but some uncertainty about how he will implement the approach remains, which warrants a downgrade of the Process Pillar rating to Above Average from High.
 
Morningstar Medalist Rating™This fund will soon receive a new lead manager who needs to prove himself.
To find out how Morningstar rates a fund click here.
Morningstar Pillars
PeopleAverage
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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