HEAD-TO-HEAD: Blackrock vs Schroders

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Both the Blackrock and Schroders fund have had management changes, according to Share.

For the Blackrock fund, Swan has been the manager since 2011. In 2017, he was promoted to head of Asian and emerging market fundamental equities from his prior role as head of Asian equities.

The promotion of Swan follows a restructuring of teams during the first quarter last year, when the firm consolidated their active fund range to some quant-driven funds, according to Share.

“He has a bigger mandate [in his new role]. He needs to consolidate the team,” she said.

Turning to the Schroders fund, Hudson was named as lead portfolio manager in January this year after Robin Parbrook, who had been the lead manager since 2010, relinquished his lead portfolio manager duties to return to Schroders in London.

Although the Schroders fund now has a new manager, Hudson has been working with Parbrook for the past decade and was previously the back-up portfolio manager, according to Share.

Weighing both the Blackrock and Schroders’ management changes, Share said she is more concerned about the Blackrock change.

“For us, there is a little bit more uncertainty there given [Swan’s] increase in workload. But we do acknowledge that they have taken certain measures to take something off his plate.”

For example, Swan is no longer listed as a co-manager of the BGF Asean and BGF China funds, and the firm plans to hire a Hong Kong-based head of research, according to Share.

Commenting on the Schroders fund, Share is comfortable with the management change. “We are very comfortable with Hudson leading the fund, because even though he wasn’t named lead manager previously, he worked very closely with Parbrook and was the back-up manager.”

Share also prefers the Schroders team over Blackrock’s.

“We like the Schroders team better given that they have been working together for a longer amount of time. For Swan’s team, he kind of restructured the team and got rid of people he didn’t like, so the turnover was a little bit higher.”

Share acknowledged that Blackrock’s team has stabilised after losing five members in 2014, and Swan aims to bolster resources through a China research hire.

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