HEAD-TO-HEAD: Blackrock versus Pimco

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MANAGER REVIEW

Head of Asian fixed income and credit, Neeraj Seth has led the Blackrock Asia Tiger Bond strategy since 2012 but stepped back from his day-to-day management responsibilities in late 2018.

His input now lies in setting macro views and the portfolio’s risk budget, and he remains the final decision-maker.

“Seth has 23 years of investment experience and a keen attention to detail, and has always impressed us with his market knowledge and is one of our favourite Asian credit managers,” said Ge.

Artur Piasecki and Ronie Ganguly were named co-managers of the strategy in November 2018 after having supported it as part of the Asian credit portfolio management team since 2009 and 2016, respectively.

The two of them average 20 years of investment experience and oversee the strategy’s daily operations, with Ganguly focusing on portfolio construction and overall credit selection and Piasecki having more input on high yield credits.

“Our confidence in the co-managers’ abilities is growing, and fund performance has remained solid since the pair was added as decision-makers,” said Ge.

They are also supported by a large Asian fixed-income team of 22 members — including 10 credit analysts — that average about 14 years of investment experience and six years of firm tenure.

Hong Kong-based Stephen Chang, who ran the strategy before it was revamped last summer since he joined Pimco in 2018, was officially named lead portfolio manager in January 2020 following regulatory approval.

Ge knows Chang from his previous role as JPMorgan’s head of Asian fixed income. He has 24 years of experience and “is one of the top Asia fixed-income managers”, said Ge.

At Pimco, Chang is joined by experienced co-managers Abhijeet Neogy, who has been a named manager since 2016, and Mohit Mittal since July 2019.

Singapore-based Neogy works closely with Chang on the portfolio’s daily management, and “his credit selection focus complements Chang’s top-down expertise nicely,” said Ge. Newport Beach-based Mittal sets the risk budget and is well-regarded.

The three managers are supported by a relatively stable nine-member Asia-Pacific credit research team that averages 13 years of experience and six years of firm tenure.

“Both its size and depth of experience are on par with our preferred teams,” said Ge.

The group is headed by Annisa Lee, who was hired in October 2019 to take up the head of Asia-Pacific research role that Chang had temporarily filled in for since 2018.

This group works within the 60-plus global credit team, one of the largest in the world, according to Ge.

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