Allianz Europe Equity Growth AT EUR |
Morningstar's Take
|07/11/2024by Ronald van Genderen
| Allianz Global Investors' Equity Growth team has been in rebuilding mode since suffering a major blow in October 2023 when seasoned and long-tenured CIO and team leader Thorsten Winkelmann left the firm along with Robert Hofmann, Marcus Morris-Eyton, Darina Valkova, and Nicolas Goncalves. Christian Schneider succeeded Winkelmann, a logical and sensible move as he was previously the team's deputy CIO. He has held this position since the team was formed in 2020 by the merger of Winkelmann's European Equity Growth team and the Global Equity team. Schneider joined the latter group in 2000 and is a seasoned investor with nearly three decades of industry experience, primarily in managing global equity portfolios. Allianz quickly added two well-experienced replacements to the team, Julian Bishop and James Ashworth. The team was further bolstered with the addition of the more junior Yingying Tao in August 2024 and the more experienced Tobias Siemenge in September 2024. As a final step in bringing the team to its original size, Thomas Orthen joined in January 2025. He came from the firm's German equity team, where his responsibilities included managing the German equity funds Fondak and Allianz Vermögensbildung Deutschland. With the team back at full strength, Allianz has taken the opportunity to reallocate portfolio management responsibilities. Effective March 28, 2025, the following changes will take place: Allianz Euroland Equity Growth Thomas Orthen will be appointed lead manager, replacing co-lead managers Andreas Hildebrand and Giovanni Trombello. Hildebrand will remain co-lead manager of the strategy for a transition period of six to 12 months. In the meantime, Yingying Tao will be appointed deputy manager of the strategy. Allianz Continental European Tobias Siemenge will take over as lead manager from Trombello and Julian Bishop, who will become deputy manager for the strategy, taking over from Hildebrand. Trombello will remain as co-lead manager of the strategy for a transition period of six to 12 months. Allianz Europe Equity Growth and Allianz Europe Equity Growth Select After the six- to 12-month transition period, Hildebrand and Trombello will devote their full attention to their responsibilities as co-lead managers of these two strategies. As for the deputy managers, Orthen will replace Christian Schneider and James Ashworth on Europe Equity Growth, and Siemenge will replace Schneider on Europe Equity Growth Select. Allianz Global Equity Growth Ashworth will join Schneider as co-lead manager for this strategy. Current co-lead manager Tobias Kohls will focus on his existing co-lead management duties for Global Equity Unconstrained. At the same time, Pieris Pieri will assume Hildebrand's role as deputy manager. We believe Allianz has taken a prudent approach to rebuilding the team, and we appreciate that it has been brought up to full strength. While the number of changes in responsibilities are numerous, we see them as a logical step to reduce the workload of some of the more senior members of the team, including Hildebrand and Trombello, increase the focus of the managers on their respective products, and allow more-junior members to take on additional responsibilities that can help them develop their skills and advance their careers. Following the announced hires and changes in responsibilities, we confirm the People Pillar rating at Average across all covered strategies, and the Process Pillar rating remains Above Average. We will conduct a full review of the strategies in October 2025. |
| The departure of CIO and head of Allianz's Global Growth team Thorsten Winkelmann and four of his team members in October 2023 was a significant blow to this franchise. Although the remaining team has provided continuity, good experience, and expertise and the team has since been rebuilt, the People Pillar rating is maintained at Average as the team has yet to prove itself in the current setup. The proven approach has been kept largely unchanged, resulting in the Process Pillar rating remaining at Above Average. Christian Schneider has succeeded Winkelmann. His appointment was a logical and sensible move, as he was already the team’s deputy-CIO following the merger of Winkelmann’s European Equity Growth team and the Global Equity team in 2020. He is a seasoned investor with an extensive global equity merit; among others, he was part of the former Global Equity team since 2000. Following the departures, Allianz swiftly added two well-experienced replacements to the team, Julian Bishop and James Ashworth. Both have considerable portfolio management expertise. The team was further bolstered with the addition of the more-junior Yingying Tao in August 2024 and the experienced Tobias Siemenge in September 2024. We thought highly of Winkelmann and appreciated the strong investment culture in his team, which combined highly experienced portfolio managers with more-junior but talented members. Team members had plenty of latitude to scour the market for investment ideas, but Schneider has added more structure and accountability to members' research responsibilities. They have kept the time-tested approach in place, although it is likely that it will be applied with a slightly greater emphasis on valuation. The team will continue to focus on bottom-up stock selection with a long-term mindset. There is a consistent and strict focus on quality-growth criteria, exemplified by the portfolio’s structural positioning in the far right of the growth column in the Morningstar Style Box. Portfolio construction is not constrained on a sector allocation level, and the approach tends to favor certain sectors, including the industrials and technology sectors, within this strategy. Also, the portfolio is tilted toward mid- and small caps, and the managers are not afraid to invest with conviction despite the smaller market capitalizations. The strategy has an excellent track record going back to October 2009. Although this record is somewhat less relevant following the team changes, we believe it remains informative in setting expectations. Despite underperforming in some of the recent calendar years, the strategy has significantly outperformed the Europe large-cap growth equity Morningstar Category average and the Morningstar DM Europe Growth TME category benchmark. However, risks are generally elevated, and the performance profile can strongly deviate from the broader market because of the portfolio’s distinctive characteristics. |
Rebuilding the team.To find out how Morningstar rates a fund click here.
| Morningstar Pillars | |
| People | Average |
| Parent | Average |
| Process | Above Average |
Morningstar Medalist RatingMorningstar assigns the Medalist Rating to funds that are qualitatively and quantitatively assessed through manager research and algorithmic processes. The assessment turns on three key “pillars” – People, Process, and Parent – that yield an estimate of how well a fund will perform before fees but after adjusting for risk.
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