Capital Group New Pers (LUX) B (EUR) |
by Stephen Welch
American Funds’ parent Capital Group announced that veteran manager Jonathan Knowles will step off American Funds New Perspective on Jan. 2, 2024, and retire from the firm on April 1, 2024. Knowles has spent 18 of his 31 years at Capital Group managing this strategy. In November, Anne-Marie Peterson and Kohei Higashi will officially join the management team, bringing the total number of named managers to 11. While Knowles’ retirement is a loss, it is one that Capital Group is equipped to handle. These changes do not alter the strategy’s High People rating or its Morningstar Medalist Ratings. Peterson isn’t new to money management. She has run a sleeve of American Funds American Balanced ABALX for more than seven years and American Funds Growth Fund of America AGTHX for more than 10 years. Peterson has also served as an undisclosed manager on this strategy for two years, something Capital Group does regularly when adding managers to strategies. She has spent 18 of her 28 years in the industry at the firm, where she has covered U.S. retail and restaurants. Peterson looks for long-cycle compounders that typically fall within three buckets: strong franchises, game changers, and revitalizers. This is the first public announcement that Higashi has a money management role. He has been managing a relatively small portion of assets as an undisclosed manager on this strategy for three years. He has spent 19 of his 27 years in the industry at the firm, where he has focused on Japanese photographic products and office electronics, as well as Asian and European automobile manufacturers. Higashi focuses on companies with enduring economic moats, characterized by strong pricing power, rising market share, strong management teams, and improving returns on capital. |
Capital Group New Perspective (which includes the American Funds US mutual fund and the Luxembourg, Australia, and Japan vehicles) stands out from the pack with a veteran management team, robust analytical support, and proven process focusing on firms benefiting from global trade. The strategy employs a sensible approach focusing on global multinationals that can take advantage of evolving global trade. Capital Group, the parent of American Funds, splits the strategy's hefty $135 billion asset base into individual sleeves among 10 named managers, a handful of undisclosed up-and-comers, and two analyst-run research sleeves. Two principal investment officers help ensure the strategy's sleeves meld together into a diversified global portfolio. The managers run their portions of the overall portfolio as they see fit but must stick to companies that receive at least 25% of their revenues from outside their home region and have at least a $3 billion market-cap float at the time of purchase. This strategy benefits from a stable team of industry experts. Four of its 10 managers have served together since December 2005, with Robert Lovelace (the longest-tenured manager) serving more than 23 years. While veteran manager Jonathan Knowles retired in early 2024, the firm named Anne-Marie Peterson and Kohei Higashi as managers in November 2023. Peterson and Higashi had been managing small portions of the strategy as undisclosed managers for three years each. Behind the management team sits a deep and talented team of more than 100 analysts. The strategy has been incredibly consistent and has typically gotten ahead by protecting capital in down markets. Over the trailing 10 calendar years, the US fund landed in the global large-stock growth Morningstar Category's bottom half only once while placing in the top quartile in five. While the strategy didn’t keep pace with the MSCI ACWI Growth Index in 2023, its trailing five-, 10-, 15-, and 20-year returns through May 2024 all ranked in the category's top third or better. This is a promising global equity option, and there's little reason to believe the strategy can't build on its record. |
Morningstar Pillars | |
People | High |
Parent | High |
Process | Above Average |
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