S&P assigns "A" Fund Management Rating to JPM Global Focus Fund

Standard & Poor’s Fund Services, the leading provider of qualitative fund management ratings, has assigned a "A" Fund Management Rating to JPMorgan Funds - JPM Global Focus Fund, following a detailed qualitative evaluation of the investment process and management of this fund.

JPM Global Focus Fund aims to outperform the MSCI index benchmark by 4-5% and despite the name has a larger number of holdings than usually associated with this type of product.

Fund manager Jeroen Huysinga has been at JPM for ten years and heads the small team of global equity managers. Previously a member of the Japan team, he worked with many of the senior analysts before moving to global mandates in 1999 and appears to have developed a good working relationship with them.

The global research team of 61 experienced career analysts is a valuable resource. Sector analysts forecast earnings and cashflow for the dividend discount model, highlighting undervalued stocks with growth potential. Stocks are ranked into quintiles and selected from the upper two. Huysinga makes the final stock selection and weights the stocks according to the degree of confidence he and the analyst have.

He has no particular style bias but demonstrates a clear preference for stocks where a catalyst for unlocking profit growth potential in the medium term has been identified. He takes large bets at sector and country level, using the full extent of the mandate to meet the demanding performance objective.

Performance has been strong relative to both peers and benchmark driven by a large overweight to Europe and strong stock selection, particularly in cyclicals, but without significant exposure to the energy sector. Huysinga has used his experience and ability to successfully draw on the large team of global analysts, generating impressive returns and allowing the fund to achieve an S&P "A" rating.