National Bank shifts to Goldman Sachs for global fund, replacing Fidelity

Rudy Luukko 5 July, 2017 | 5:00PM
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When the portfolio-management changes for the $661-million National Bank Global Diversified Equity take effect in early September, a long-standing management contract will end between National Bank Investments Inc. and Fidelity Investments, one of NBI's competitors.

The incoming eternal portfolio manager is another well known U.S. name, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, through two NBI funds that it manages: NBI SmartData International Equity and NBI SmartData U.S. Equity. Overseeing the allocations between these two underlying funds in National Bank Diversified Global Equity will be National Bank Trust, which may also invest tactically in other assets including exchange-traded funds.

 NBI said its goal in replacing Fidelity is to improve performance. The nearly 17-year-old fund has a 15-year annualized return of 5.2% to June 30, trailing the average in its category by 1.3 percentage points over that period. It has a 3-star Morningstar Rating for its historical risk-adjusted returns.

"We believe the new manager along with an enhanced structure and ability to deviate tactically will be able to add more alpha than years past," an NBI official said via email. The global equity fund's investment objective remains unchanged.

Coinciding with the manager change, scheduled for Sept. 1, the fund's new name will be NBI Global Diversified Equity. This will be its fifth name since its inception in October 2000, when it was originally launched as National Bank/Fidelity International Portfolio and had a mandate to hold units of a Fidelity mutual fund.

In June 2009, the fund's objectives were changed to allow it to invest directly in stocks, as well as indirectly, but the Fidelity organization continued to manage the portfolio. The fund's other past names include Omega Global Equity, which is what it was called between June 2009 and May 2014.

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About Author

Rudy Luukko

Rudy Luukko  Rudy Luukko is a freelance writer who contributes to Morningstar.ca on topics involving fund industry trends and regulatory issues. He retired in May 2018 from his position as editor, investment and personal finance, at Morningstar Canada, where he had worked since 2004. He has also worked as an editor and writer for various general, specialty and institutional media, and he has co-authored courses for the Canadian Securities Institute. Follow Rudy on Twitter: @RudyLuukko.

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