RankiaPro Funds Meeting in Paris: Insights from Fund Managers

The latest edition of the RankiaPro Funds Meetings took place on Thursday, October 8th, at the prestigious Hotel Plaza Athenée . The event brought together top investment professionals to discuss market trends, investment strategies, and economic outlooks for the coming months.

During the session, attendees had the opportunity to engage with distinguished speakers, including:

• Iliana Perdomo, Director, Business Development from PTAM.
• Federico Valesi, Head of Fixed Income from Quaestio Capital SGR.
• Kamyar Varzi, Head of Institutional Sales & Consultant Relations from Tokio Marine Asset Management. 
• Aymeric Blanc, Head of Sales France from Xtrackers by DWS.

The morning began with a networking breakfast, allowing fund selectors and buyers to exchange insights on key market challenges and opportunities. Each speaker then presented their firm's investment approach, fund strategies, and market perspectives, providing attendees with valuable takeaways on portfolio positioning and asset allocation in the current economic climate.

Iliana Perdomo, Director, Business Development from PTAM.

Performance Trust Total Return Bond UCITS ETF (PTAM) aims to provide exposure to U.S. bonds, while employing PT Asset Management’s unique Shape Management methodology to target long-term performance and consistent growth across both rising and falling rate environments.

The Active U.S Bond ETF is actively managed by a senior investment team with a deep expertise and proven track record, while using Shape Management to help curate a portfolio that looks different to its peers and provides exposure to many niche fixed income sectors.

Federico Valesi, Head of Fixed Income from Quaestio Capital SGR

Quaestio Global Enhanced Cash invests in a diversified portfolio of short-term bonds, with a dynamic, active approach to credit. Its objective is to protect capital while generating a stable return, with moderate credit risk, duration structurally below 2 years, and minimal drawdowns. The fund targets the JPM 3-month Euro Cash Index plus 100 bps, net of fees, over a medium-term horizon, and is actively managed.

The portfolio is built mainly around investment-grade and sovereign bonds, predominantly euro-denominated, but may allocate up to 40% to other credit instruments such as high yield, including emerging markets, securitised credit and subordinated bonds. Carry, low duration and rigorous issuer selection, led by Head of Credit Federico Valesi, drive every decision.

Our philosophy is simple: short-term investors accept moderate returns, not significant losses. This disciplined approach has earned the fund a five-star Morningstar rating over 3, 5 and 10 years.

Kamyar Varzi, Head of Institutional Sales & Consultant Relations from Tokio Marine Asset Management. 

The Japanese Equity Focus Fund is a 30-40 portfolio UCITS fund with a GARP investment approach. It leverages stock research from TMAM’s 12 member analyst team whose tenure averages 10 years at our firm. Uniquely our PM must invest in stocks which are rated by our analyst team and we believe this improves the quality of research and provides a superior pool of companies for our PM to select from.

With value having outperformed growth by its widest margin ever in Japanese market history for last 5 years, we believe the time is ripe for a GARP investment approach to Japan. In addition to companies with a superior ROE, our approach also favours companies undergoing favourable transformations in their business model as well as governance reforms. Currently 1/3 of the stocks are exposed to the AI supply chain in Japan which we believe trade at a discount to AI companies elsewhere.

Aymeric Blanc, Head of Sales France from Xtrackers by DWS.

Far from being opposed, passive and active management are increasingly used in a complementary way within portfolios. Index management, through ETFs, provides efficient, transparent and low-cost exposure to financial markets, capturing the market beta that drives long-term performance. It often forms the core of the allocation.

Around this foundation, active management can play a satellite role by seeking sources of alpha, exploiting market inefficiencies or expressing specific investment convictions. This core-satellite approach allows investors to benefit from both the robustness and discipline of passive management, while retaining the outperformance potential offered by the expertise of active managers.

At Xtrackers, we believe the question is no longer whether to choose between active and passive management, but rather how to combine the two intelligently in order to build portfolios that are more efficient, more diversified and better aligned with investors' objectives.