Schroder ISF Asian Smlr Coms A Acc USD |



by Harsh Jain

In October 2024, Schroders plc announced that Richard Oldfield had been appointed as the group’s CEO, succeeding Peter Harrison, with effect from Nov. 8, 2024. Harrison’s decision to retire was announced in April 2024; he will continue to work with Oldfield until the end of 2024. Oldfield joined Schroders in 2023 as chief financial officer, being responsible for firmwide operations along with direct responsibility for financial management, risk management, technology, capital, and treasury. Before that, he was at PwC for 30 years, holding senior roles including network vice chairman and global markets leader. Reporting to the global chair, he was responsible for building teams to grow PwC’s client-facing businesses, while advising global clients. Despite this CEO change and several other changes at its senior leadership level, we continue to hold Schroders in high regard, as the firm continues to demonstrate a strong investment culture and a high degree of stewardship. The quality of its fund lineup is generally solid. Schroder’s Parent rating therefore remains Above Average. |
We continue to have limited conviction in Schroder International Selection Fund Asian Smaller Companies. While we appreciate the portfolio manager Paul Rathband’s detailed knowledge and patient approach, we have reservations about his ability to execute this strategy effectively, especially with changing team dynamics after dedicated small-cap analyst Gina Kim’s recent departure. Average ratings on People and Process Pillars are thus maintained. Rathband has led this strategy since March 2012 and was closely supported by backup manager and dedicated small-cap analyst Kim, who departed Schroders recently. While Paul has 30+ years of investment experience and has demonstrated detailed knowledge of individual stocks during our meetings over the years, the breaking up of the duo results in changing team dynamics being a watchpoint. Unlike many of the other Schroders portfolio managers, Rathband has a greater tendency to invest in contrarian names, albeit with limited success. While we appreciate Rathband’s willingness to stand by the conviction in times of adversity, the frequent investment missteps made in recent years do not instill confidence. Rathband draws on more than 35 Asia ex-Japan equities analysts, who sport more than 15 years of industry experience and seven years of firm tenure, on average. While the turnover in the centralized Schroder’s team has been manageable, the team dynamics for this strategy is a watchpoint after the reduced dedicated small-cap support, and increased reliance for coverage on centralized resources and on its joint venture with Axis Asset Management in India, where the team is expanding. We continue to view the supporting team highly, but we are less convinced of Rathband‘s portfolio management capability, especially amidst changing team dynamics. The investment process is based on Schroders’ quality-oriented research framework, overlaid with Rathband’s “Growth” and “Transition” company classification. The transition companies tend to be value stocks that have fallen out of favor. While the process has some merits when the exuberance or pessimism in the market fades, the execution has been prone to stock-specific accidents that had an outsize drag on the overall performance over the past few years, raising concerns about the strategy’s approach toward risk management and sell discipline. While Rathband’s long-term track record is reasonably good versus peers, the strategy’s performance has been mediocre versus the benchmark in recent years. This is accentuated in strong up markets—for example, the strategy underperformed the benchmark MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Small Cap Index in strong up markets of 2017, 2020, and 2023. The track record is slightly better but still not inspiring when seen versus the peers, which partly also shows difficulties faced by active managers in the small-cap category. This underperformance largely stemmed from stock-specific issues and weak sell discipline, notably within the mid-cap value segment. |
Morningstar Pillars | |
People | Average |
Parent | Above Average |
Process | Average |
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