MFS Investment Management has announced the launch of the MFS Global Contrarian Equity Trust, the latest product from the firm to be rolled out in Australia.
Deploying an actively managed global equity strategy to target asymmetric investment opportunities, the trust provides exposure to the MFS Contrarian Capital Strategy. According to MFS, this strategy was developed in response to demand from Australian investors.
The trust is also inspired by the firm’s Contrarian Value Strategy, which became restricted to new investment in 2023 due to capacity constraints. This new rollout, it promised, has the same investment philosophy and leaders, but also offers a larger-cap investment mandate.
“The MFS Global Contrarian Equity Trust combines the best of MFS’ contrarian investing expertise and risk management with a unique mandate designed to complement and diversify global equities exposures within Australian portfolios,” Josh Barton, head of Australia and New Zealand, said on the launch.
Expounding on the strategy, MFS said it identifies divergences between the price and value of large-cap companies experiencing controversy, or those in a state of transition such as corporate restructuring.
This is done by selecting between 30 and 60 securities using bottom-up fundamental analysis that is sector and region agnostic and benchmark unconstrained.
“Each security is screened for value and critically, for change, which is arguably more difficult to measure and requires a dedicated team of global analysts familiar with the businesses and industries involved,” the investment manager said.
“With an investment objective of long-term capital appreciation over a full market cycle, it invests in a diversified portfolio of global equity securities of companies located in developed and emerging market countries.”
Co-portfolio managers Anne-Christine Farstad and Zahid Kassam will be responsible for all portfolio decisions and risk assessments.
“At a time when global equity markets are being shaped by forces unprecedented in nature and magnitude, creating more pockets of price dislocations, the trust may provide investors with the value characteristics they seek, while diversifying their equity exposures and providing more flexibility than some of the more dogmatic deep value strategies,” Barton said.
