Manager Review
The Allianz fund is co-managed by Raymond Chan, the firm’s CIO of Asia-Pacific equity, and David Tan, the head of global fixed income.
“The Asian equity and fixed income teams are highly involved in the fund management, as they are responsible for the underlying security selections,” Ng said.
The Schroder fund is managed by the Schroders multi-asset team in Asia, which is headed by Patrick Brenner. He took over the role from Richard Coghlam in the middle of 2015, when Coghlam was relocated to the US.
Fees
The latest ongoing charges (OCF) of the Allianz fund are 1.57% (Class AM USD) and the Schroder fund and 1.56% (Class A Acc HKD), Ng said.
“They are roughly in-line with their mixed asset peers,” he said.
Conclusion
Between the two funds, Ng has a preference for the Schroder product.
While the two funds aim to deliver a stable income stream for investors, the Schroder fund has better performance, as their teams actively take care of allocation among asset classes and regions, take a bottom-up approach in securities selection, and practice risk management of equity and foreign exchange markets, Ng said.
“The Schroder fund has adequate resources with professionals from various areas contributing to the management of the fund, and these inputs have been helping investors to ride through markets with different conditions consistently,” he said.
On the other hand, Allianz may suit better for investors who look for a designated allocation between equities and fixed income, specifically high-yield bonds in the fixed income segment, he added.
“For the Allianz fund, the team has adopted a relatively static approach in terms of equity and fixed income aloocations, and they are more focused on the defensive sectors, such as utilities and telecoms,” Ng said. “The Allianz fund could be an option for those who look for stable returns.”
