Citywire Ratings: uncovering Eastern Europe’s rated elite

Market Snapshot

Following our monthly round up on manager with an Eastern European rating we awarded 130 managers a total of 201 ratings in February.

This breaks down to 134 A, 43 AA and 24 AAA ratings within the six Eastern European countries in our database, which are Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania and Poland.

Here is the breakdown:

• 22 rated managers with funds registered for sale in Cyprus made up of 2 AAA, 4 AA, and 16 A
• 43 rated managers with funds registered for sale in Estonia made up of 6 AAA, 13 AA, and 24 A
• 26 rated managers with funds registered for sale in Latvia made up of 3 AAA, 7 AA, and 16 A
• 41 rated managers with funds registered for sale in Liechtenstein made up of 5 AAA, 13 AA, and 23 A
• 21 rated managers with funds registered for sale in Lithuania made up of 3 AAA, 4 AA, and 14 A
• 48 rated managers with funds registered for sale in Poland made up of 6 AAA, 12 AA, and 30 A

Highest New Entrant: Pauline Ng, JP Morgan

Rating

AA-rated in Poland

Overview

One of the highest debutants in Citywire's Eastern European ratings this month is Pauline Ng of JP Morgan Asset Management. Ng has earned a AA rating in Poland for her performance on the JF ASEAN Equity D Acc fund, which she has managed since 12 November 2009.

The fund has shown a strong three-year performance, returning 83.95% while its benchmark, the FTSE World Asia Pacific ex Japan TR USD index, rose 49.19%.

Local Leader: George Muzinich, Muzinich & Co.

Rating

AA-rated in Estonia and Latvia

Overview

Muzinich & Co. founder George Muzinich is co-manager on the SEB High Yield C (H-SEK) fund and the market veteran has run this fund on mandate since November 2000.

Over the past 36 months, Muzinich has returned 57.08% in euro terms while the fund's index, the BofA Merrill Lynch Global High Yield Hedged EUR benchmark, rose 38.50%. On a risk-adjusted basis, this outperformance has led Muzinich to a AA rating in both Estonia and Latvia.

Rising Stars: Frédéric Dupraz/Yves Kramer, Pictet

Rating

AA-rated in Cyprus

Overview

The rising stars in February’s Eastern European ratings are Frédéric Dupraz and Yves Kramer, co-managers of Pictet-Security-P USD. They have been rated over the last seven months in Cyprus, since the Equities Cyprus-Global Equities sector was launched.

This month they increased their rating to AA which was achieved with a manager ratio of 0.542 and, in absolute terms, outperforming the fund’s Citywire benchmark, the FTSE World TR EUR index, by 12.61 percentage points.

Group Ratings

Looking at group standings, JP Morgan Asset Management sits in the first place with a total of 25 rated managers with funds registered for sale in Eastern Europe. Swiss & Global Asset Management follows closely with 24 and T Rowe Price is third with 15 rated managers across the Eastern European countries covered by Citywire.