Ms Bhansali steps down as manager of Ariel Global and Ariel International on August 31. Between that, the funds have over $800 million in assets. Bhansali will remain as a consultant until February.
She will be succeeded by Henry Mallari-D’Auria, who joined the firm from AllianceBernstein in April, bringing along five associates. He was the head of emerging markets for Ariel until the announcement of Bhansali's departure, at which point he became head of global and international equities for them He was CIO for EM Equity Value to AllianceBernstein from 2002-2023.
Ariel Global is a four-star fund. Ariel International is vastly larger, and has earned three stars. Given that Morningstar doesn't track growth and value separately, and Bhansali is a distinctly contrarian, value investor, the star ratings might be a bit misleading. MFO Premium tracks Global against Lipper's Global Multi-Cap Value peer group. Global has average returns (it trails the group by 0.2% APR) but substantially lower volatility and substantially higher risk-adjusted returns (Sharpe Ratio is 0.62 since inception, versus the peer group's 0.50). International tracks the International Large Core group where is substantially trails its peers in returns, has substantially lower volatility, and comparable risk-adjusted performance.
Mr. Mallari-D'Auria ran an Europe-based EM hedge fund (Next 50) for AllianceBernstein. He manages two SMA strategies for Ariel (EM Value and EM ex-China Value). He also ran
AB Emerging Markets Value Equity, which also appears to be a quarter-billion dollar SMA strategy. That strategy earned three stars from Morningstar. Like the Ariel funds, it's a value strategy which substantially trails its (non-value) peer group since inception. The gap is about 200 bps. But it's not evident that he's ever run a mutual fund before.
I've reached out to her via LinkedIn to see if she'll chat, now or after September 1, about her plans.
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The next sentence leaves me confused: " Given that Morningstar doesn't track growth and value separately, and Bhansali is a distinctly contrarian, value investor, the star ratings might be a bit misleading. "
It used to be that M* lumped all the global stock funds together into one "world" category. That changed in 2021. There are now value, blend, and growth global catagories.
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/morningstar-world-stock-categories-get-some-style
And it used to be that funds got star ratings based on broad asset classes. That changed a long time ago. "In 2002, Morningstar enhanced the star rating with new peer groups and a new measure of risk-adjusted return. The peer groups for the rating were changed to the smaller category groups instead of the broad asset classes."
https://www.morningstar.com/content/dam/marketing/shared/research/foundational/780133_The_Morningstar_Rating_for_Funds__Analyzing_the_Performance_of_the_Star_Rating_Globally.pdf
@Shostakovich - you might take a look at LTTMX. Its long term figures (including risk) look similar to AGLOX 's. The two funds follow somewhat different paths, with Lipper classifying LTTMX as a global equity income fund in contrast classifying AGLOX as a global multi-cap value fund.
Portfolio Valuation comparison of the funds.
Which gets me back to confusion about value classifications. LTTMX is a value fund (M* classifies it as a global large cap value peer of AGLOX), while Lipper lumps all global equity income funds together. In the end, they both deliver similar results with similar risks using value oriented portfolios.
If one is willing to take on more risk (i.e. use a more volatile fund), one can find global value funds that more than reward the additional risk (i.e. have better risk-adjusted returns). But if risk management is paramount, LTTMX is worth a look.
Foreign Large Value 26
Foreign Large Blend 26
Foreign Large Growth 26
Foreign Small/Mid-Value 27
Foreign Small/Mid-Blend 27
Foreign Small/Mid-Growth 27
Global Large-Stock Growth 28
Global Large-Stock Blend 28
Global Large-Stock Value 28
Global Small/Mid Stock 29
So, for foreign stocks, SC & MC have been combined. Global seems incomplete.
2023 Edition is seriously delayed. It was supposed to be out in April 2023.