Investment and Retirement
ON THE RADAR: SSQ Lazard Global Infrastructure GIF
 |
ON THE RADAR: SSQ Lazard Global Infrastructure GIF
Fund: SSQ Lazard Global Infrastructure GIF
Manager: Lazard Asset Management, headquartered in New York
Benchmark Index: FTSE Developed Core Infrastructure 50/50 Index (Net) (C$) (Hedged)
Fund Category: Global Equity
A SOLID TEAM THAT’S MANAGING AN AWARD-WINNING STRATEGY
The strategy of the underlying funds of the SSQ Lazard Global Infrastructure GIF has been raking in the awards for several years now. In fact, the strategy won 10 prizes, specifically from Thomson Reuters Lipper (USA) in 2016, 2017 and 2018 for its 3-year and 5-year performance.
This SSQ fund is managed by the global infrastructure team at Lazard Asset Management, a world-renowned firm that manages more than 200 billion (US$) in assets. The management team is very stable and is made up of five experienced portfolio managers who have an average of 15 years of experience in investment management. These portfolio managers are supported by over 50 analysts around the world. A victim of its own success, the fund stopped accepting new corporate investors since February 2015. Luckily, the SSQ fund was opened in 2007, which means you can invest in this fund via our investment platform.
The portfolio managers favor “preferred infrastructures”, an infrastructure sub-class that, in their opinion, holds a higher profit certainty and a lower share price volatility compared to other infrastructure stocks. Plus, the manager focuses on a portfolio of 25 to 50 of the most attractive securities from their preferred infrastructure roster.
The company, management team and management process are three of the five criteria used by SSQ Insurance to assess the potential success of portfolio managers. The two other criteria (return and risk/return ratio over 3 and 5 year periods) are also excellent, which explains why this fund has earned so many awards.
After several years of excellent returns, both absolute and relative to its benchmark index, the fund had a difficult start in 2018. This can be explained by the rise in interest rates, which put a damper on the performance of infrastructure securities that are sensitive to interest rates. During a period of volatility like the one experienced in early 2018, it’s important to maintain a long-term vision and to keep in mind the advantages of diversifying your portfolio with the SSQ Lazard Global Infrastructure GIF.
THE BENEFITS OF INVESTING IN A GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE FUND
1. Global Investment Platform - The SSQ Lazard Global Infrastructure GIF is managed by five experienced portfolio managers and more than 50 analysts around the world.
2. An Award-Winning Strategy - The strategy of the underlying funds of the SSQ Lazard Global Infrastructure GIF was awarded 10 prizes over the past five years.
3. Top Quality Assets - The portfolio manager favour “preferred infrastructures,” an infrastructure sub-class that the manager believes has a higher profit certainty and a lower share price volatility.
4. Higher Return - In general, global infrastructure securities offer a better performance than equities.
5. Purchasing Power Protection - This fund offers a kind of long-term purchase power protection because increases in infrastructure companies' revenues are primarily linked to inflation.
6. Uncorrelated Assets - Adding a global infrastructure fund to a balanced fund improves diversification because global infrastructure can reduce volatility as global infrastructure is not highly correlated with other traditional asset classes.
7. High Conviction Portfolio Manager - The fund has a concentrated portfolio consisting of the 25 to 50 most attractive securities based on the manager's value ranking system, which stand as the investment team's best ideas.
8. Low Volatility - The fund is currency hedged, which enables it to mitigate the impact of currency fluctuations on its performance.