Head To Head

HEAD-TO-HEAD: Blackrock vs Fidelity

FSA compares the BGF Global Multi-Asset Income Fund and the Fidelity Global Multi-Asset Income Fund.

by Francis Nikolai Acosta 19 October 201810 November 2020

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Matias Mottola, Morningstar

Introduction

Multi-asset funds, which aim to provide an income stream and deliver a smoother ride through market volatility due to their diversified assets, seem to have become an attractive investment product in 2018.

Multi-asset Ucits funds had net inflows of €64bn ($73.3bn) from European and Asian investors during the first eight months of the year, according to Matias Mottola, associate director for multi-asset and alternatives at Morningstar.

“Investors continue to be interested in allocation funds as the expected returns for fixed income are still so low. So by adding more risk through an allocation solution, investors expect to receive a little bit more of income or return and are willing to take a slightly higher risk,” he said.

Returns for fixed income have turned sour this year, with only US high yield bonds returning positively, according to Standard Chartered Private Bank’s weekly market report.

The equities market is also down, with only the US and Middle East markets returning positively, according to the report.

Against this backdrop, FSA asked Mottola to look at two global multi-asset funds: the Blackrock GF Global Multi-Asset Income Fund and the Fidelity Global Multi-Asset Income Fund.

	Blackrock	Fidelity
Size	$8.51bn	$7.81bn
Inception	June 2012	March 2013
Manager/s	Michael Fredericks, Justin Christofel, Alex Shingler	Eugene Philalithis, George Esftathopoulos, Chris Forgan
Yield	5-6%	4-5%
Three-year reutrn*	11.24%	13.70%
YTD alpha**	0.69	1.42
YTD volatility**	3.82	4.47
Morningstar analyst rating	Silver	Bronze
Morningstar star rating	****	–
FE Crown fund rating	**	****
OCF (retail share class)	1.74%	1.67%
OCF (clean share class)	0.85%	1%

Source: Morningstar, FE Analytics

*Cumulative to 19 October 2018

**to 19 October 2018

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