Standard & Poor's Fund Services (S&P) has released its review of mid-cap Australian equities strategies, with Ausbil Dexia's Australian Emerging Leaders Fund taking out the highest rating within the peer group.
The research house rated five headline strategies as part of the peer group.
The Ausbil Australian Emerging Leaders Fund received a four-star rating, while the BT Wholesale Mid Cap Fund gained a new three-star rating.
"Our four-star rating on the Ausbil Emerging Leaders Fund reflects our strong conviction in portfolio manager Paul Xiradis and the senior members of the investment team," S&P fund analyst James Gunn said.
"The manager's thematically-driven investment process is well established and has continually demonstrated its ability to outperform across both large caps and mid caps, including at different stages of the market cycle."
S&P affirmed its three-star ratings on the remaining three funds, which included Concise Mid Cap, Goldman Sachs Asset Management Emerging Leaders and Australian Ethical Smaller Companies.
"In terms of increasing our conviction in the peer group as a whole, in some cases it's a matter of needing to observe teams and processes over a more extended period of time, or alternatively gaining greater confidence that managers can replicate their large-cap successes in the more specialised small-cap market segments," Gunn said.
He said S&P would release its review of micro-cap and small-cap strategies over the coming weeks.
