AB Emerging Markets Gr A HKD

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|06/06/2024

by David Carey
Alliance Bernstein announced on May 20, 2024, that AB Emerging Markets Growth lead manager Sergey Davalchenko left the strategy and the firm. Ivan Kim will replace him as lead manager effective immediately. This strategy's Morningstar Medalist Rating is Under Review.

Personnel turnover has been an ongoing issue here over the past few years. In early 2022, former lead manager Laurent Saltiel abruptly stepped down, and later that year comanager Guojia Zhang also left the strategy. When Saltiel left, Davalchenko took over as lead manager of this strategy and AB India Growth and was named CIO of Alliance Bernstein's emerging-markets team. Although Davalchenko had been a manager here since 2012, his track record as lead manager was short but underwhelming.

Kim's familiarity with the strategy is a plus, but he has much to prove here. Kim didn't join this team and the firm until mid-2022 and was promoted to comanager in April 2024. His 17 years of industry experience is a plus, but he has no public track record managing money, and he has a lot on his plate. In addition to running this strategy, Kim will also take over AB India Growth.
 
AB Emerging Market Growth’s personnel turnover and run-of-the-mill approach make it a lackluster offering.

On May 20, 2024, lead manager Sergey Davalchenko abruptly left the strategy and the firm. AllianceBernstein appointed comanager Ivan Kim as his replacement. The move was somewhat surprising given Davalchenko had been a comanager here since 2012 and had been at the helm since early 2022.

Kim is an adequate replacement, but he is the strategy’s third lead manager in as many years. After former lead manager Laurent Saltiel abruptly left in January 2022, Davalchenko took over this strategy and AB India Growth, which put a lot on his plate. To complicate the situation more, comanager Goujia Zhang also stepped down from the strategy later that year. Now Kim will be tasked with taking over both portfolios. Kim’s roughly 20 years of industry experience covering emerging-markets stocks is a plus, but he spent just two years as an analyst here and had no portfolio manager experience prior to his promotion to comanager in April 2024. Three dedicated analysts and roughly 15 other emerging-markets analysts and portfolio managers at the firm support Kim in his research efforts, but he has much to prove.

Kim plans to use a modified version of his predecessors’ approach. He and the team still rely on fundamental research to uncover emerging-markets companies with quality management teams, strong returns on invested capital, and competitive advantages. However, unlike Davalchenko, Kim plans on using the firm’s centralized quantitative tools to source ideas and gain additional insight into holdings. This is a reasonable modification but it’s unclear what value the tools will add here, and the approach doesn’t stand out versus peers.

The strategy had underwhelming results under Davalchenko. Since he took over the portfolio at the end of January 2022, the A shares’ 5.5% annualized decline through May 2024 trailed the MSCI Emerging Markets Index by 2.3 percentage points. Kim’s coverage of various technology, media, and telecom stocks stood out over the period, but he didn’t have buy and sell authority and his track record here is brief. All told, there are more proven, stable options available.
 
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Morningstar Pillars
PeopleBelow Average
ParentAverage
ProcessAverage
 
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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