PIMCO GIS GlInGd Crdt Ins USD CcyExpsInc |
by Jeana Marie Doubell
Pimco continues to build out its European credit capabilities with the recent appointment of portfolio manager Saurabh Sud in September 2024. Sud will lead the firm’s team of European credit portfolio managers and analysts, alongside European Credit-Research Head Philippe Bordereau. In addition, Sud is now a senior member of Pimco’s multisector and global investment-grade credit portfolio management teams. Sud is no stranger to Pimco. He worked at the firm from 2012 to 2018, serving as a portfolio manager for credit absolute return and long duration credit strategies and as a member of the Americas portfolio committee alongside CIO of Global Credit Mark Kiesel. In 2018, Sud moved to T. Rowe Price, where he managed a dynamic credit strategy and comanaged a US core bond strategy with good results, until his return to Pimco in September 2024. As of Oct. 31, 2024, Sud has joined the rosters of several funds rated by Morningstar as a supporting comanager: Pimco GIS Global Investment Grade Credit Fund and Pimco GIS Global Investment Grade Credit ESG Fund (with High People and Above Average Process Pillar ratings from Morningstar), and Pimco GIS Euro Income Bond Fund and Pimco GIS Euro Credit Fund (with Average People and Above Average Process Pillar ratings from Morningstar). Sud’s addition to these funds’ management teams as a supporting member does not change our overall conviction in the strategies at this stage, which retain their current ratings. Pimco’s corporate credit effort, characterized by both impressive fundamental analysis and top-down value discipline, is among the elite, and Sud’s appointment adds further depth to the firm’s already solid European corporate credit team. |
Pimco GIS Global Investment Grade Credit benefits from the skill of its veteran lead manager, the support of an impressive group of corporate-bond specialists, and a versatile process that draws on the firm's robust macroeconomic and fundamental research. It merits High People and Above Average Process Pillar ratings. Lead manager Mark Kiesel, Pimco's global credit CIO, boasts three decades of experience in global credit markets and has run this strategy since 2003. He is supported by two strong comanagers: Mohit Mittal, CIO of core strategies, who oversees Pimco's US investment-grade, high-yield, and emerging-markets corporate trading desks, and Jelle Brons, a senior corporate credit specialist who leads the group's sustainable credit lineup. The three are further backed by an impressive cadre of corporate credit portfolio managers and analysts, as well as Pimco's plethora of quants, traders, and macro researchers. The firm's credit effort, characterized by both impressive fundamental analysis and top-down value discipline, remains among the elite. The team is not afraid to stretch its investment universe (versus the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Credit Index), often exploring off-benchmark opportunities in high-yield debt (typically 5% to 10% of the portfolio) and local-currency emerging-markets fare (typically 1% to 5% of the portfolio). This can lead the fund to underperform when more risky, lower-quality fare sells off, as noted by the fund's struggles from 2020 to 2022. Exposure to industries hurt by the pandemic detracted in 2020, and stakes in hard-hit Russian and Chinese credits in 2022 took a toll as well. This damped medium-term returns, but the team's bond-picking skills remain intact—shining across a range of sectors in 2023 and 2024. Under Kiesel's two-decade leadership, from August 2003 through October 2024, the strategy has generated excellent long-term results and continues to stand out as an attractive option for exposure to the global corporate credit markets. |
Morningstar Pillars | |
People | High |
Parent | Above Average |
Process | Above Average |
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