e-fundresearch.com: Dear Céline Piquemal-Prade, you are the fund manager of the Comgest Monde fund ( ISIN: FR0000284689 Comgest Monde C). When did you take over the responsibility of managing this fund?
Céline Piquemal-Prade: I became lead portfolio manager of Comgest’s global strategy in 2008 and have been a manager for the Comgest Monde fund since 2004.
e-fundresearch.com: What is the current size of the fund?
Céline Piquemal-Prade: AUM €181m (30/04/2014)
e-fundresearch.com: Do you also manage other funds or mandates? What is the total amount of assets you manage currently?
Céline Piquemal-Prade: Yes. I manage various Global pooled and segregated accounts and also a pooled EAFE fund. The Global Equity team managed assets totaling €1.6bn as at Q1 2014.
e-fundresearch.com: How long have you been in the business as a fund manager?
Céline Piquemal-Prade: I have been a fund manager for more than 11 years now and have more than 15 years’ experience in the financial industry.
e-fundresearch.com: What are the main steps in your investment process and in which area is your competitive edge to add value to investors?
Céline Piquemal-Prade: As a global equity fund, Comgest Monde is much more than just a mixture of the company’s regional funds. Starting from a ‘global opportunity list’, which is the compilation of Comgest’s regional portfolios, the global team selects a universe of between 80 and 90 stocks, a kind of ‘best-of-the-best’ universe, which is the basis for its global stock picking. This process is ideal in the sense that it combines Comgest’s local stock-picking expertise across all major investment geographies with the flexibility to benefit, for example, from valuation opportunities in specific geographies or industry groups. For example, Japan has for some time grown to become one of the largest geographic concentrations in the portfolio, initiated by the valuation anomaly which followed the events of 2011. The Japanese quality-growth stock picks have since proved to be key drivers of Comgest’s global equity funds’ strong relative performance.
Below is a chart outlining the net volatility of Comgest Monde C as at 30/03/2014 (net in euros):
