2020 Winners
Best Fund Provider – Quantitative Fund
Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Alison Lau
MD, head of quantitative investment strategies Asia ex-Japan, Goldman Sachs Asset Management – Hong Kong
GSAM offers a wide range of services to its distribution partners and we are convinced that a mutually beneficial distribution relationship is, to a large extent, based on the quality and consistency of the superior service we provide to our partners.
The GS Global CORE Equity Portfolio is a diversified global equity portfolio that combines fundamental insights with cutting-edge technology like machine learning. The core of our investment philosophy is identifying strong businesses with attractive valuations, high-quality business models, positive sentiment, and exposure to trending market themes. In doing so, we utilise a vast array of data sources to objectively evaluate and form views on over 9,500 developed market stocks across 250+ criteria. The Fund has over a 15-year history and we believe its strong performance and growing client interest is testament to our capabilities.
The strategy, which employs a data-driven, real-time approach to equity investing, is designed to generate stable, explainable, and repeatable results, and is managed by the firm’s quantitative investment strategies division.
As part of a three-step investment process, the team analyses over 13,000 global stocks on a daily basis using over 100 data sources and a proprietary model based on four return drivers: fundamental mispricings; high-quality business models; themes and trends; and sentiment analysis. A proprietary portfolio construction system and risk model is then applied, with the model updated on a daily basis, with a greater weighting given to the most recent information to better capture the changing risks in the market. And throughout every step of the process, transaction costs are carefully considered, with the team typically purchasing stocks based on long-term views and evaluating positions daily to assess whether there were stock-specific risks.
At its heart, Goldman Sachs’ Global CORE Equity Portfolio strategy is about applying technology to achieve and maintain an edge over more traditional stock picking methods. And this showed in the strategy’s track record.
It was five-star rated by Morningstar (as of the time of deliberation) and ranked in the top decile for the past five and ten years and top quartile for the last three-year period, as of 31 August 2019. The solution continued to outperform on a consistent basis, beating its benchmark in the last five- and 10-year periods, as well as since inception, on a net, annualised basis. And its net assets have ballooned by more than 630% over the past three years on account of strong client demand globally.
As with all of Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s solutions, the Global CORE Equity Portfolio was supported by best-in-class client service and relationship management. The firm employs a team-based approach to its investment and client servicing and, for a select group of clients, offered access to its Strategic Advisory Solutions team, which provides a suite of integrated solutions to help its clients grow and enhance businesses via market strategy and business practices.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management is AAsian Private Banker’s Best Fund Provider – Quantitative Fund for 2020.