UBS Global Asset Management has replaced departed head of research John Moran, and sought to reassure ratings houses of the “;continuum”; of its investment process.
The replacement for Moran, who will join former boss Paul Fiani at new boutique Integrity Investment Management, is Marissa Rossi. A six-year veteran of UBS GAM, Rossi has covered the healthcare, diversified industrials and diversified financials during her career. In other internal transfers, Jakov Males will take on portfolio manager responsibility for the MSCI/FT benchmarked Australian share portfolios, after joining UBS GAM in April (initially as a listed property analyst) from his role running Allianz Global Investors’ aborted domestic equities funds; while Samantha Carelton has transferred from the Australian equities trading team to become a trainee analyst. UBS GAM chief executive officer, Paul Bolinowsky, also said a search was now underway for “;between two and three investment analysts, whose roles will cover the financials, media and transport sectors”;. Bolinowsky also stressed the rash of staff departures should be seen in the context of how UBS GAM’s process was structured. “;UBS believes that the intrinsic value of any company is determined by its future cash flows discounted back to a present value. This is the framework in which we look at all companies on a global basis using our core price/intrinsic investment approach,”; he said. “;This analysis is maintained via our proprietary global intranet database called ‘Pedestal’. So while it is regrettable to lose analysts, UBS’ investment and research approach ensures that the results of each analysts’ work are not lost to the firm as whole. This ensures there is an ongoing continuum in the analyst research that is conducted on any company, which can then be modified as appropriate by any incoming analysts.”; Within the past two weeks, Lonsec has placed a ‘Redeem’ rating on UBS GAM, while Standard & Poors halved its rating from four to two stars, and counselled advisers to avoid the firm when choosing ‘core’ managers for clients’ domestic share portfolios.
The changing nature of volatility in financial markets and a more client-centric approach that allows allocations to be tailored is helping more institutions adopt a total portfolio approach to investment management, the Fiduciary Investors Symposium at Stanford University has heard.
Prashant MehraOctober 8, 2024
