BGF Sustainable Global Dynamic Eq A2 USD

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|03/05/2024

by Natalia Wolfstetter
Collaborative decision making mitigates some concerns stemming from the retirement of one of BGF Sustainable Global Dynamic Equity’s comanagers, but his successor’s portfolio management experience is limited. At the same time, the strategy is moving to a higher-conviction positioning, which increases execution risk. While we reinstate the People rating at Average, the Process rating is lowered to Average from Above Average.

This fund has experienced some changes at its helm in recent years, with the June 30, 2024, retirement of David Clayton, head of fundamental security selection and comanager of the fund since 2017 alongside Russ Koesterich, the most recent one. The strategy is managed by BlackRock’s global allocation team, which remains well-resourced, but Clayton’s departure is not insignificant, given that around 90% of the portfolio relies on fundamental stock selection, with the remainder thematic strategies. Clayton will be replaced by Sarah Thompson, who transitioned to equities when joining the global allocation team in 2018. Her career going back more than 20 years was mostly spent in fixed-income, however, and she does not have a long track record of managing portfolios. BlackRock has decided to broaden the manager lineup for the strategy to include Rick Rieder, team head since 2019 and BlackRock’s CIO of fixed income; Kate Moore, head of thematic strategy; and Randy Berkowitz, head of quantitative strategies and research. Rieder spearheaded a deeper integration with BlackRock's vast macro and fixed-income resources, which is a plus for this team, though it may have a greater impact on the team’s flagship BlackRock Global Allocation strategy, of which this strategy is the equity carve-out.

Macro views, paired with fundamental bottom-up research, help inform positioning across regions, sectors, and themes. The macro overlay led the team to put greater emphasis on cash flow growth and balance-sheet strength, while the previous approach was more valuation-driven. The process has been fine-tuned in recent years to bolster the impact of stock selection and give more weight to the team’s higher-conviction ideas, but at the same time this increases the demands on execution. The strategy’s conversion to Article 8 of the European Union’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation as of Feb. 23, 2024, introduces more-pronounced environmental, social, and governance tilts and is reflected in the portfolio through a stronger growth bias. The strategy seeks to have a higher allocation to securities classified by BlackRock’s ESG investment team as having positive externalities relative to its MSCI All Country World Index benchmark while avoiding securities with negative externalities. As a result, the investable universe is reduced by about 20%.

Overall, results are mixed since Rieder took over the global allocation team, and risk has been above average. The team must prove itself as it continues executing the refined approach.
 
Morningstar Medalist Rating™With a new comanager on the horizon, we are adopting a more cautious stance.
To find out how Morningstar rates a fund click here.
Morningstar Pillars
PeopleAverage
ParentAbove Average
ProcessAverage
 
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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