HEAD-TO-HEAD: Neuberger Berman versus Pictet

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Manager review

“Here, Neuberger Berman has the advantage, and this is also a big reason for the difference in the two funds’ ratings,” said Kirwin.

The Neuberger Berman team is remarkably stable and tight-knit: lead manager Bart van der Made has worked with this fund’s comanager Mike Reyes and the heads of the firm’s emerging-markets-debt team, Rob Drijkoningen and Gorky Urquieta, for two decades.

“The four ran an identical strategy at ING for 12 years with impressive results until May 2013,” said Kirwin. At that time, the group left ING together with 15 other colleagues to found Neuberger Berman’s emerging-markets effort. Today, they are backed by six further investment professionals focused on hard-currency debt, of whom three are members of the original ING cohort.

“Pictet, on the other hand, has seen some upheaval in recent years,” said Kirwin.

The emerging market debt team of eight managers lost its long-time leader, Simon Lue-Fong, in 2018 along with three other portfolio managers who left around the same time.

Well-established team member Mary-Therese Barton took over the team and restocked it with five seasoned hires. Whereas the fund had previously been managed by the entire investment team together, with Lue-Fong playing more of a supervisory role, Barton also changed the management set-up by appointing two of the team members, Guido Chamorro and Robert Simpson, as lead managers on this strategy.

“While many elements of this fund’s strategy have remained consistent since the changes took place, there have been some hints that the new management team is a little bit more willing to embrace risk than the previous one,” said Kirwin.

“Given all of the changes, we have less confidence in this strategy than in the Neuberger Berman strategy, which has remained consistent for almost a decade. However, in terms of resources, this is also a very highly experienced and well-resourced team.”

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