HEAD-TO-HEAD: Stewart versus T Rowe Price

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Manager review

The Stewart strategy “draws on the skills of an experienced and well-regarded sustainable funds group,” according to Genderen.

The fund is managed by Sydney-based David Gait and Nick Edgerton, and they are advised by Sashi Reddy, who joined Stewart Investors in July 2007 and is located in Singapore.

The investment team, which totals 14 analysts and portfolio managers, are spread across offices in Sydney, Singapore, Edinburgh, and London with many analysts conducting in-depth research on a company.

“Despite the distance, team collaboration is a feature, and we’ve been impressed with the depth and quality of the team’s research over time,” said Genderen.

The team has grown in recent years, adding a sustainability-focused investment specialist in 2019. “Overall, team turnover has been low, and the group is one of the more impressive outfits in the industry,” said Genderen.

Turning to T Rowe Price, Baltimore-based Scott Berg took over this strategy in October 2008. He has with the firm since 2002, first as a stock analyst before being promoted to associate portfolio manager on global growth strategy in 2005.

For a long time, Berg has used an associate portfolio manager to help monitor the portfolio, and this role switched to London-based Philip Richards from Hari Balkrishna in 2020, according to Genderen. Richards, who joined the firm in 2018 from Goldman Sachs, covered consumer, Internet, and technology stocks before assuming his new role.

Berg and Richards work closely with T Rowe Price’s sector and regional heads, who manage dedicated portfolios, and rely heavily on the firm’s broad equity research platform. The research group, located across eight global offices, is more than 200 strong and organised mostly along sector lines.

“T Rowe Price has said it will split its investment organisation into two separate entities in 2022, though that shouldn’t have a meaningful impact here as Berg will retain access to most of the global and non-US analysts and portfolio managers,” said Genderen.

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