Vontobel Global Equity C1 USD |
by Morningstar Manager Research
Vontobel Holding AG has announced that CEO Zeno Staub will step down at the firm’s next annual general meeting in April 2024. Staub has spent 22 years at the firm and has been its CEO for the past 12 years. He intends to become more actively involved in Swiss politics upon his resignation and is expected to stand for election as an ordinary member of the firm’s board at the 2025 annual general meeting after a one-year cooling-off period. The firm is planning to identify a successor by the end of 2023 and is considering both internal and external candidates. The announcement of Staub’s upcoming resignation comes four months after the firm announced that he had relinquished his leadership role at Vontobel Investments. He handed over the management of the firm’s asset-management arm to Christel Rendu de Lint as of Jan. 13, 2023. De Lint joined Vontobel in the role of deputy head of investments in May 2021 and brought a wealth of industry experience. Vontobel indicated after her appointment that she was hired as part of a succession plan for Staub, thus keeping Vontobel’s investment arm in experienced hands. The long notice period leaves room for Vontobel to find a capable successor and ensure a smooth transition, in our view. We also don’t think there’s an immediate impact on the firm’s culture or operations. As a result, we reaffirm the Average Parent Pillar rating for Vontobel and will evaluate the firm’s new leadership once a successor has been announced. |
Weakness in Vontobel Global Equity C1 USD's Process and People Pillar ratings limits this strategy to a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Negative. Fees are a weakness here. The strategy's lofty fees are a high hurdle to clear, as it is priced within the highest quintile among peers. The strategy gets a Below Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained a significant underweight position in volatility exposure and liquidity exposure compared with category peers. Low volatility exposure is attributed to stocks with a lower standard deviation of returns. And a low liquidity exposure is rooted in stocks with lower trading volumes, limiting managers' flexibility. The strategy’s management team earns a Below Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm an Average Parent Pillar rating. People Pillar and Parent Pillar ratings for this strategy are indirectly assigned by a Morningstar analyst rather than algorithmically derived. Please see the notes following each pillar section for more details. The details of assigning methods can be found in each pillar section. |
Morningstar Pillars | |
People | Below Average |
Parent | Average |
Process | Below Average |
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