Portfolio Manager of the Year Henry Wong
DWS
Portfolio Manager of the Year
Henry Wong
head of Investment Strategy – Fixed Income
“I am happy to receive this award on behalf of the wider investment team at DWS and consider it a validation of our pragmatic, benchmark-agnostic, investment style. Equally, we would like to thank our clients for their confidence in us and patience over the last couple of years, as we have sought to shelter them from the worst of the recent market volatility. We expect brighter days ahead and are looking forward to the challenge of once again outperforming in this dynamic asset class.
After the extraordinary quantitative support measures and ultra-low rates, which have been back-stopping the market since the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, we always felt that the eventual withdrawal of liquidity would be challenging. And so it proved, this year and last.
Happily, now that treasury yields are at more ‘normal’ levels, Asian credit is once again a “two-way” market with more meaningful price appreciation potential. With rates higher, investors can at least hope to profit from a reasonable level of portfolio carry in the future.
Developments in China have of course strongly affected market sentiment but our exposures there have been relatively low over the last couple of years, and we expect that risk-return drivers for Asian credit will be better balanced.”
Winnersrationale
The fact that DWS has won Best Fund Provider – Asia Pacific Bond in Asian Private Banker’s Asset Management Awards for Excellence for the second year running is testament to the portfolio management capabilities of Henry Wong.
The veteran manager has almost three decades of experience in Asian credit. Since he joined the German investment group in 2014, he has been at the helm of DWS Invest Asian Bonds, the flagship Asian credit strategy of DWS. During that time, he has played an integral role in asset gathering and platform development, helping DWS to grow its Asian fixed income AUM to almost US$2.2 billion.
Earlier in his career, Wong honed his skills at BEA Union Investment Management and BNP Paribas Asset Management. Wong’s experience proved critical in 2022, when major fixed income and equity markets saw their worst sell-off in decades, and Wong adroitly navigated volatility, hedged risk and selected securities with the potential to outperform.
Wong proved up to that task. Between January and August 2022 — the part of the year considered for awards submission — the Asian Bonds and ESG Asian Bonds strategies outperformed.
Much of that alpha can be attributed to securities selection. Focusing on bottom-up credit selection, Wong has effectively prioritised capital preservation during periods of major drawdowns. More importantly, though, it has been his willingness to make concentrated, high-conviction calls when he deems it necessary.
These have often gone against the grain. For example, in recent years DWS Invest Asian Bonds have been significantly underweight China, on the back of such factors as geopolitical uncertainties, rising policy risk and deleveraging in the property sector. Considering the upheaval in the country’s real estate market witnessed over the last two years, his investment views have proven highly astute. For reference, China is the largest constituent of the benchmark J.P. Morgan Asia Credit Index.
Congratulations to Henry Wong for winning Portfolio Manager of the Year in Asian Private Banker’s 2023 Asset Management Awards for Excellence.
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