Morningstar has recognised Lisa Coleman, Saida Eggerstedt, Paola Binns, Anne-Christine Farstad and Louisa Lo as top performers in the fund management industry.
The group received high ratings on Morningstar’s ‘People Pillar’, which rates Morningstar’s confidence in the investment team and strategy.
Coleman, head of the Global Investment Grade Corporate Credit team in the global fixed income, currency & commodities group at JP Morgan, founded the team in 2008. Since 2009, she has managed the $6.3bn JPM Global Corporate Bond Fund, which has had a cumulative return of 58.21%.
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Lena Tsymbaluk, associate director of manager research at Morningstar, said: “Prior to joining JP Morgan in 2008, Coleman successfully managed a variety of credit strategies at Schroders Investment Management for eight years, Allmerica Financial for six years, and Brown Brothers Harriman for five years.”
“Earlier in her career, she worked at Merrill Lynch, Travelers Insurance Company, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Given her extensive experience, Coleman is recognized as a leading specialist in the global investment-grade corporate arena.”
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Head of sustainable credit Eggerstedt from Schroders was also recognised for her fixed income capability over nearly three decades, especially for he work within sustainability. She has grown a suite of four sustainable credit funds to $2.9bn in assets.
“In her role, she specialises on corporate engagements, sustainable bonds, climate and transition portfolios, impact opportunities, and sustainability regulations,” Tsymbaluk said.
“Under her tenure, Schroder ISF Sustainable Euro Credit has achieved consistent outperformance compared with peers and its category index, driven predominantly by strong security selection.”
Specialising in the sterling corporate credit space, Royal London’s Binns has led the Royal London Short Duration Credit fund since it began in 2013. It has returned 47.26% since inception, while the EAA Fund Corporate Bond Short Term has managed just 26.32%. Binns has over 35 years of industry experience and started at Royal London in 2007.
Throughout her career, Binns has gained experience across European corporate bonds, government bonds, and emerging-markets debt,” Tsymbaluk said.
“Through her strong analytical capabilities, she has been able to add value and successfully manage research-intensive bottom-up-driven corporate bond strategies. Her strategies have a bias toward secured bonds within sectors such as covered bonds, real estate, social housing, and structured bonds. There is also emphasis on strong covenants and securitized structures.”
On the equity side, portfolio manager for MFS’s Farstad was recognised for her work on the Contrarian Value strategy. The fund has rocketed since its launch in 2019, with a cumulative return of 97.23%.
“Farstad’s approach to contrarian investing is supported by her discipline and patience, qualities that are crucial for this strategy,” Tsymbaluk said.
“She is not afraid to go against the grain, investing in controversial areas or companies with depressed stock prices. Her long tenure at MFS and experience as an analyst have also fostered strong collaboration with the broader analyst team.”
Schroders gained its second recognition with the performance of Lo, who started at the firm in 1996 as an equity analyst. Now, she is the lead manager of the Schroder ISF Taiwanese Equity, Schroder ISF All China Equity, Schroder ISF China Opportunities, Schroder ISF Greater China, and Schroder ISF Emerging Asia strategies.
The Greater China fund has returned 943.33% since 2002, with annualised returns of 10.8%, putting her 1.8 percentage points above the peer group.
“Her strong analytical and leadership skills have helped her become a prominent figure within the firm, where she now holds the position of head of Asia ex-Japan equities, based in Hong Kong,” Tsymbaluk said.