A leading global fund ranking service, Morningstar, has ranked the Falcon High Yield Defensive Fund amongst the best-performing funds in the US Dollar High Yield funds category on a 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year annualised return basis.
Morningstar has assigned an overall “five-star” rating for the Falcon High Yield Defensive Fund, one of a number of products offered by Gulf International Bank (UK) Limited, a subsidiary of Gulf International Bank BSC (GIB).
Only 10 funds out of the 441 in the Dollar High Yield funds category have been awarded this highest rating by Morningstar. Moreover, amongst its peer group, the Falcon High Yield Defensive Fund was ranked first in the 1-Year Return Category and second in the 3-Year Annualised Return category as of end-January 2009.
Morningstar is an investment research company, currently tracking over 122,000 open-ended funds globally. The company’s fund ratings services are used by retail and institutional investors world-wide. The rating was achieved on a strong performance track-record, providing stable risk-adjusted returns for over seven years, throughout the credit cycle.
Additionally, the Falcon High Yield Defensive Fund outperformed the best-performing fund from the 405 Lipper-rated USD High Yield funds on a five-year return basis. It also outperformed all but two other funds in the Lipper USD High Yield database on a one-year and three-year annualised basis.
Robert Sargent, Head of Asset Management at GIBUK, explained that “the long term consistent performance of the High Yield Defensive Fund illustrates the depth of our asset management capabilities and the expertise of our Fund Products team.”
Mohab Mufti, Managing Director and CEO of GIBUK, added that “the Fund showcases the idea generation capabilities of GIBUK. It’s another instance where we have created a value-adding niche within a traditional asset class, by using fundamental analysis to invest in select strategic short-dated credits.”
GIBUK is based in London and is regulated by the Financial Services Authority. It manages capital in the financial markets through fund products and segregated portfolios, providing a range of financial products and services to financial institutions in the Middle East and Europe. It manages more than $14 billion of client assets and has a proven reputation, earned over the past twenty years, for innovative solutions, strong performance and quality of service.
GIB is a leading merchant bank in the Middle East with its principal focus on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. With a proven track record spanning more than 30 years, GIB provides client-led, innovative financial products and services to a wide customer base in the region, including investment banking, capital markets debt securities, private equity, asset management, project and structured finance and Islamic banking.
