I have followed Lewis Kaufman who ran Thornburg Developing World Fund
for about 3 years. Good EM fund performance while carrying approx $ 2.3 bill.
Kaufman has a strong performance and investment reputation at Thornburg.
Just saw tonight in the MFO "mger changes" section that he has joined
Artisan Funds and will start his own autonomous investment team for
EM stocks.....by "mid 2015"
Getting a chance to own a new Lewis Kaufman EM stock fund where assets
will be (much) lower & where he gets to call his shots will be a good thing.....
No load but maybe 1.75 % exp ratio (IMO)...?
I will be interested in following this opportunity as it unfolds this summer.........
Comments
Prof. David got a tip about this change and posted a heads-up about it recently, here:
http://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/19092/building-the-new-artisan-emerging-markets-team/p1
You might want to check it and the comments out; some of the ruminations have come to pass. Needless to say, we are hopeful and await the details (Artisan probably will be slow to release).
Maybe the ER will be high .......but IMO not a hurdle.
EM/Frontier funds that consistently post top 1quartile total
returns are worth the exp cost.......active EM/Frontier fund
mgmt IMO can provide real alpha as compared to an index.
I think Kaufman, with a lot fewer dollars, will afford him extra
opportunities to out-perform when he gets going for Artisan...
....and I think Artisan will close his fund while its still "right sized"
to sustain his performance. Both things that didn't happen
at Thornburg...? Instead Kaufman should get new, extra incentives
to produce strong results which will mean new money into
Artisan.
This news is a higher profile move for Artisan as compared to other
fund mger recruitments. We will be able to watch together as events
unfold.
Just think we might actually have temps above freezing when a
Lew Kaufman first Artisan EM fund goes public..!!!
Maybe longer term, Kaufman's team runs an EM stock, a Frontier
markets stock, and even a EM bond fund ...... other fund
options can be considered as time goes by.
Regards