BlackRock has launched the BlackRock Fund Managers (BFM) Global Unconstrained Equity Fund (UK) (the Fund), designed for investors looking to allocate capital in a high-conviction, long-only equity portfolio of exceptional global businesses.The Fund will be a concentrated portfolio of between 20-30 stocks with a low turnover and a focus on long-term investing. Typically, businesses held within the portfolio will have had to demonstrate a strong market position, structural tailwinds, high returns and have strong management teams. The Fund will target developed markets, with a focus on Europe and the US, and have an unconstrained investment style, meaning it will not take a benchmark index into account when selecting the Fund’s investments. In line with BlackRock’s commitment to integrating sustainability across all investments, the Fund will also take an issues-based approach to ESG exclusion and ESG will also be integrated into the investment process.
The Fund is managed by Alister Hibbert and Michael Constantis who will draw insights from BlackRock’s global network of investment intelligence, including a platform of more than 160 fundamental equity investors.
Alister Hibbert, co-portfolio manager of the Fund, says: “The Global Unconstrained Equity Fund seeks to maximise returns from hard to replicate, global companies with sustainable earnings power. Our long-term approach sees through short-term market noise and allows the investments time to compound returns – a powerful but often under-utilised opportunity.”
Becci McKinley Rowe, Head of BlackRock’s Fundamental Active Equities in EMEA, adds: “Investor aims have not changed but the investment landscape has. Low economic growth and technological disruption are contributing to a divergence between ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ offering significant opportunity for long-term alpha investing.”
