Page 32 - Investment Advisor July/August 2022

2022 Asset Manager of the Year

Global, International, Emerging Market Equity Manager of the Year

Acadian Asset Management
Acadian International ADR SMA

cadian International ADR SMA
A invested in high-quality, attrac-
tively priced companies to produce
strong results last year, earning it the
Asset Manager of the Year Award in
the International, Global, Emerging
Markets category. Employing both top-
down and bottom-up approaches, the
managers oversee a portfolio of 50 to
100 core large-cap developed market
ADRs and a relatively modest — rough-
ly 20% — emerging market exposure,
according to Envestnet analysts. Vladimir Kravets Sean Geary
In 2021, the portfolio returned 17.4%,
outpacing the MSCI ACWI ex-US Title: VP, Relationship Management Title: Fund Manager
Index by 9.6 percentage points, the Years with present firm: 7 Years with firm: 7
analysts noted. Years in financial services: 15 Years in financial services: 15
The portfolio team’s background in
quantitative analysis; its impressive model
for capturing multiple alpha sources and Investment/asset class: Global, returns. And this really happened across
its integration of fundamental research International, Emerging Markets the board for our portfolios at Acadian,
helps give the program a competitive edge, Asset management firm: leading to a fantastic year for us.”
according to the Envestnet analysts. The Acadian Asset Management Well-diversified portfolios that have
managers rely on numerous aggregate fac- prudent risk controls are key to the
tors, filtered through value, growth, qual- Year firm founded: 1986 firm’s investment process, he said.
ity and technical indicator categories, to Number of employees: 362 In 2018, long before Russia invaded
develop stock performance forecasts. AUM as of April 30, 2022: $102B Ukraine, Geary explained, Acadian
“Acadian has been a pioneer in sys- placed more controls on Russia and
tematic investing for over 35 years, with Russian financials. “So our global inter-
a talented, 100-person investment team, and so we really national strategies were underweight Russia, and we held no
embrace experience, discipline and cutting-edge research,” Russian exposure in the ADR portfolios.”
Vladimir Kravets, Acadian vice president and relationship The portfolio managers expect the current heightened vola-
manager, told Investment Advisor. tility to persist for the rest of this year and into 2023. “Investors
The team doesn’t time their entry points, especially not in are going to be challenged with decisions around the implica-
today’s volatile market atmosphere, Kravets said. The firm’s tions of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, supply chain disrup-
process incorporates fundamental signals and has performed tions continuing from the implications of COVID, inflation and
well in both value and growth environments. “So we’re able to central bank policy,” Geary said. The volatility and dislocations
do well both in the short and longer time periods,” he added. provide an excellent opportunity for stock-picking, he said.
Sean Geary, Acadian vice president and portfolio manager, In terms of domestic versus international investments,
noted that in 2021, “well-valued companies rallied while more “one thing to consider is the U.S. markets have been a source
growth-oriented firms struggled. Acadian’s multifactor process of excess returns for several years now. And that persistent
is designed to capture these dislocations in the markets. And so source of excess returns may be hard to sustain, especially in
last year we delivered over 6% excess return in the markets.” light of the very high profitability that we’re starting the year
He added that “stock selection was a key component of this. with,” Geary said. “International markets may have the oppor-
So exposure to high-quality names, names that surprised on tunity to outperform given both their more cyclical nature, as
the upside for growth potential as well as names that are well- well as their relative advantage from a valuation standpoint,
valued relative to their peers, all contributed to those excess compared to U.S. securities,” he added. — DWB

30 INVESTMENT ADVISOR JULY/AUGUST 2022 | ThinkAdvisor.com