The managers of Veritas Global Equity Income and Veritas Global Focus were celebrated on Thursday evening for their achievements on behalf of end investors. Mid-way through the second annual Morningstar Investment Conference Europe, Morningstar's team of European fund analysts awarded managers Andrew Headley and Charles Richardson 'Morningstar European Fund Manager of the Year - Global Equity'.
The co-managers of the two funds, which are operated with notably different strategies, have not only managed to outperform their respective category peers in 2011 but have also managed to generate positive returns for investors of both funds while peers have fallen into negative territory, Morningstar analyst Oliver Kettlewell pointed out during the awards ceremony in Vienna.
The winner of the 'Morningstar European Fund Manager of the Year - European Equity' award went to Laurent Dobler and Arnaud Cosserat, Comgest managers who run the Renaissance Europe fund, known outside France as the Comgest Growth Europe fund.
In deciding the winners of these awards, Morningstar's European fund analysts are invited to nominate managers that they feel have served investors well throughout the year. As always, Morningstar's analysis is based on the framework of the five pillars--people, process, parent, performance and price. Each nominee is then hotly debated by our research team and eventual winners are decided by a vote.
Commenting on the Global Equity winners, Chris Traulsen, Morningstar's director of fund research for Europe and Asia, said: "Andrew Headley and Charles Richardson have amassed an impressive record ... The two stress preservation of capital and a focus on finding companies with durable competitive advantages and healthy cash flows whose prices reflect a good margin of safety." The merits of the managers' approach was on full display in 2008, Traulsen added, while they also delivered top quintile performances in 2009's super-heated rally and achieved positive returns in 2011 when the peer groups' average returns were both negative.
Turning to the winners of the European Equity award, Traulsen said Comgest's Dobler and Cosserat "focus squarely on quality and growth, with quality a primary concern." He added that, while their approach can lead to periods of underperformance, "their ability to protect investor capital during severe market downturns has helped the two managers build an excellent record overall."
Find out which nominees missed out in this pre-awards article.