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BlackRock Global Unconstrained Equity
BlackRock Global Unconstrained Equity is a concentrated, high-conviction fund, targeting extraordinary companies across developed markets. It takes a long-term approach which filters out short-term noise in the marketplace. Although relatively new, it is backed by some of the most experienced and top-performing equity managers of the past decade.
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Alister Hibbert, Managing Director, is Head of BlackRock's Strategic Equity Team within the Fundamental Equities division and serves on BlackRock’s Global Operating Committee. He is the founder and co-portfolio manager of the BlackRock Strategic Equity Hedge Fund Strategy, the firm's flagship equity hedge fund, which has won multiple awards, including Eurohedge Fund of the Year. He also co-manages the BlackRock Global Unconstrained Equity Strategy. Before establishing the Strategic Equity Team in 2020, Alister was a senior member of BlackRock’s European Equity Team, managing over $15 billion in the European Dynamic Strategy and receiving numerous accolades, including multiple Portfolio Adviser Fund Awards and Lipper Europe awards. He joined BlackRock in 2008 after roles at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, Oechsle International, and Invesco Perpetual, and began his career at Ernst & Young in 1994. He holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Bristol and is actively involved in educational charities and development committees.
Michael Constantis, CFA, Managing Director and portfolio manager at BlackRock, is a key member of both the European Equity and Strategic Equity Teams within the Fundamental Active Equity division. He co-founded and co-manages the BlackRock European Hedge Fund Strategy and oversees Pan European portfolios with a growth style, as well as European and Global equity portfolios using an unconstrained approach. Michael has been with BlackRock since 2005, following its merger with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, and previously worked at Deutsche Asset Management focusing on European telecom stocks. He holds a BSc in Economics from University College London.
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Company Description
A part of the US-based BlackRock Group, BlackRock manages assets across equity, fixed income, cash management, alternative investment and real estate strategies. It provides this comprehensive range of products across numerous continents with more than 130 investment teams in 30 countries.
Fund Performance
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Investment process
BlackRock Global Unconstrained Equity has a global mandate but is limited to only investing in developed markets. The team's philosophy is built around the idea that the market has become increasingly focused on short-term returns. This provides an opportunity for the long-term investor who is willing to ride out short-term noise and back exceptional businesses well into the future. It is essentially a ‘buy and hold’ approach.
The team believes that low economic growth and technological disruption means the equity market is increasingly divided into ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. A benchmark-orientated approach makes no sense in this environment and the fund deliberately avoids any benchmark constraints as a result.
Fundamental research is centred around the sustainability of a company’s returns and the scale of its reinvestment opportunity. The focus is on how a company’s growth might look well into the future rather than over the next quarter. Compounding is exceptionally powerful and those businesses which can manage it consistently for many years, or even decades, can deliver outstanding returns. The team looks for established market leaders with high returns, structural returns and conservative, judicious management teams.
The only constraint on the fund is that more than 50% of assets must be invested in defensive companies. Defensive companies are those whose cash flows are not expected to fall significantly in the event of an economic downturn.
The fund has a general bias in favour of large and mega-cap companies, which make up the vast majority of the portfolio. However, it does also invest a reasonable proportion into mid-cap stocks. The fund has a very clear style bias in favour of quality growth companies with resilient earnings
Mindful that rebalancing the portfolio too frequently ultimately defeats the objective of compounding, trading is rare and only driven by fundamental change to the investment case, valuation extremes or a superior idea.
Risk
BlackRock Global Unconstrained Equity is benchmark-agnostic and is very highly concentrated, with a portfolio of just 20 to 30 stocks. It typically has a number of holdings with individual weights of more than 8%. This means there is a high degree of individual stock risk.
ESG
ESG - Integrated
The fund’s ESG approach combines a negative screen, which excludes certain stocks, and an integration into the fundamental assessment of a stock during the research process. UN global compact violators, controversial and nuclear weapons stocks are all excluded, as are companies which derive more than 5% of their revenues from civilian firearms, tobacco or fossil fuels.
ESG factors are also considered as part of fundamental research on all potential ideas. The team’s own knowledge is supplemented with data from MSCI to flag potential ESG issues which may have a material impact.
The information, data, analyses, and opinions contained herein (1) include the proprietary information of FundCalibre, (2) may not be copied or redistributed without prior permission, (3) do not constitute investment advice offered by FundCalibre, (4) are provided solely for informational purposes and therefore are not an offer to buy or sell a fund, and (5) are not warranted to be correct, complete, or accurate. FundCalibre shall not be responsible for any trading decisions, damages, or other losses resulting from, or related to, this information, data, analyses, or opinions or their use. The Elite Fund rating is subjective in nature and reflects FundCalibre’s current expectations of future events/behaviour as they relate to a particular fund. Because such events/behaviour may turn out to be different than expected, FundCalibre does not guarantee that a fund will perform in line with its FundCalibre benchmark. Likewise, the Elite Fund rating should not be seen as any sort of guarantee or assessment of the creditworthiness of a fund nor of its underlying securities and should not be used as the sole basis for making any investment decision. FundCalibre disclaims any responsibility for trading decisions, damages or other losses resulting from any use of the Elite Fund rating. All performance data, as well as fund size, OCF, AMC, annual income (historic), share price discount or premium, is sourced directly from FE Analytics, and will change periodically.