Ziad Bakri, T Rowe Price
US-based investment firm T Rowe Price has announced its first exclusive distribution partnership with UBS GWM in Singapore and Hong Kong to offer the T Rowe Price Health Sciences Equity Strategy. Under the partnership, the $19.3bn strategy will be available only through UBS GWM to private wealth clients in these markets.
“The diverse and dynamic health sciences sector is amid a transformative period of innovation, creating significant investment opportunities across a broad array of companies in healthcare, pharmaceuticals and life sciences,” said Ziad Bakri, portfolio manager of the strategy, in a statement.
“A distinct focus of the strategy is companies which develop therapeutics for diseases that affect large patient populations and need improved treatment options, such as cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s,” he added.
Incepted in 1995, the strategy has an 89% allocation to US stocks, top individual holdings including United Health, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Danaher, Intuitive Surgical and Eli Lilly, according to its fact sheet (30 September 2021).
Morningstar awards the strategy five stars and a silver analyst rating. “Consistent execution of the fund’s longstanding approach sets it apart,” analyst Linda Abu Mushrefova wrote in her most recent report.
It has generated an annualised return of 21.25% during the past 10 years (to 31 October 2021), outperforming its S&P 1500 Healthcare (category) by 3.99%, with volatility of 16.25% compared with 13.26% by the index, according to Morningstar data.
“The strategy employs a more aggressive approach than the typical healthcare fund, but Bakri has executed well. It aims to invest the bulk of assets in companies with innovative therapies and then devotes the remaining across a range of companies that contribute to either high-quality care or the ability to lower system costs. [It is] a strategy that relies heavily on company-specific research.”
Based in the firm’s headquarter in Baltimore, Bakri has 16 years of investment experience focused on analysis on key trends in the healthcare and biotech sectors, and was previously a medical practitioner. He is supported by an in-house research team with medical and scientific backgrounds.
“Healthcare is a key investment theme which offers diverse opportunities ranging from defensive compounders in the pharmaceutical area to emerging high growth companies involved in genetic therapies and health technology,” said Jansen Phee, head of fund investment solutions Apac at UBS GWM, in the statement.
“The current environment further highlights the significance of healthcare as an important long-term theme.”
