Rajiv Jain of GQG Partners is very much in the news.
Last month he was awarded the Morningstar Award for Australia for Fund Manager of the Year – Global Equities.
He was also making headlines for betting $1.9 billion on four Adani firms: Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited, Adani Green Energy Limited, Adani Transmission Limited and Adani Enterprises Limited. “About 25% of India’s air traffic passes through their airports; 25-40% of India’s cargo volume goes through their ports; Adani Green Energy is the fastest and largest private sector, green energy company in India," is what he told Australian Financial Review.
According to Morningstar analysts, GQG Partners Global Equity has some caveats, but its logical approach and its manager’s ability to successfully navigate the territory earned their strong conviction. Lead portfolio manager Rajiv Jain describes his approach as "quality-growth," seeking companies with a strong market position, a record of prudent capital allocation, and a history of weathering tough economic conditions. Jain isn’t afraid of making aggressive portfolio changes if the fundamentals change, so investors should be prepared to see very high turnover at times. This approach has allowed the strategy to weather tough times in the market better than the indexes and most peers. The fee is very competitive at 0.75% per year with no performance fee.
This is not the first time he has bagged a Morningstar Award. In 2012, Morningstar U.S. awarded him the International-Stock Fund Manager of the Year for Virtus Foreign Opportunities and Virtus Emerging Markets Opportunities.
At that time, Morningstar analysts described his investing style as a high-conviction approach regardless of market trends and a willingness to hold portfolios that look very different than the benchmark. His approach produced attractive risk-adjusted returns over his tenure, especially compared with other emerging-markets funds. His relatively high exposure to Indian stocks worked well for the fund in both 2011 and 2012 despite a lagging Indian market in 2011. He looks for companies with strong balance sheets, steady growth rates, and straightforward business models, with a heavy tilt to consumer-product companies, which have helped him weather market downturns.
Rajiv Jain founded GQG Partners in June 2016, after moving out as Co-CEO and CIO at Vontobel Asset Management.
