Best Fund Provider Emerging Market Bond
DWS Group
Best Fund Provider – Emerging Market Bond
Henry Wong
managing director, head of Asia fixed income, APAC, DWS Group
Benny Gay
director, head of intermediaries & private banks coverage, APAC, DWS Group
Robert Gibbs
director, co-head of active specialists, APAC, DWS Group
“DWS Invest Asian Bonds shows the importance of having innovative, locally manufactured products for private banks in Asia, which demand best-in-class solutions for clients.
We believe that the flexible nature of DWS Invest Asian Bonds has really resonated with investors seeking a core allocation to Asian credit. This reflects the fact that the market today is about so much more than the Chinese high yield property sector alone.
Ultimately the main goal of the portfolio management team, has been to try and derive the best possible risk-adjusted return within Asian credit, regardless of index weighting. When that has meant deviating significantly from consensus, we have done so. This flexibility has been key to the fund’s philosophy and not only helped generate returns but also protected investor capital. Indeed, careful credit selection and downside risk management have been what separated the fund from its peers over the long term, resulting in excellent risk-adjusted returns.
We understand that investors and advisors have entrusted us with their/their clients’ assets and the least they expect is a clear, consistent, and timely information flow — and we have done all we can to facilitate that”
Winners rationale
Investors in 2019 were once again trumpeting higher yielding debt in emerging markets as a way to source income, because of the low interest rates across the board. Encouragingly, this asset class as a whole saw double-digit gains in 2019. Underpinned by its robust credit selection process and downside risk management, asset manager DWS achieved excellent risk-adjusted returns, continuing to gain the trust of private banking clients.
Distinguishing itself from its peers was one of the firm’s flagship funds, DWS Invest Asian Bonds strategy. It used a truly flexible, unconstrained benchmark-agnostic approach, investing across different credit ratings, durations, countries, and sectors in a full discretionary manner. With an investment grade high quality bias, this strategy has achieved 8.1% per year in total return over the five years to end December, beating the JACI index by a significant 3.2% on an annualised basis¹.
A superior performance is not only about outstanding returns, but also about downside protection in the event of a market drawdown. Impressively, in the last five years to end 2019, the fund has made an upside capture ratio of 1.23 and downside capture ratio of 0.24, showcasing its strong capability of alpha generation and capital preservation².
An outstanding performance and solid inflows always hinge on a superior investment and distribution team. As a European house, DWS traditionally marketed products managed out of Europe, but in recent years, the firm has been proactively building its Asian capabilities out of its Singapore and Hong Kong offices — showing its commitment to the region.
Supported by five dedicated sales specialists led by Benny Gay, the firm’s private banking distribution business spans across the APAC region with key client relationships in Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, Mainland China, and Thailand. The DWS private banks and intermediaries team covers the entire value chain, from sales and onboarding of funds, to facilitating trades of DWS funds, and aftersales servicing and support in a holistic manner.
On the back of the firm’s robust fund platform and the quality of service, DWS wins Asian Private Banker’s award for Best Fund Provider – Emerging Market Bond.
1 Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Calculation of performance is based on the time-weighted return, net of management fees and excludes front-end fees. Individual costs such as fees, commissions, and other charges have not been included in this presentation and would have an adverse impact on returns if they were included.
2 Up (down) side capture ratios are calculated by taking the fund’s monthly return during months when the benchmark had a positive (negative) return and dividing it by the benchmark return during that same month. An upside ratio over 1 indicates outperformance over the JACI benchmark during periods of positive return, and vice versa.
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