Fund Manager Focus October 2010 Our guest: UBS Global Asset Management

UBS Global Asset Management in Zurich is the institutional investment management division of UBS and manages approximately $530 billion. UBS was founded in 1998 as a result of the merger between Union of Switzerland and . UBS also owns Chicago- based and has major offices in London, Chicago and Geneva as well as Zurich. UBS group, as a whole, has total assets under management in the group of nearly $2 trillion.

James McLellan runs a U.S. mid cap fund worth $390 million which invests in U.S. stocks with market capitalizations between $500 million and $10 billion. He also runs a global materials and a global energy fund with a combined value of $250 million. Before joining UBS, James, an Englishman, worked at Insight Investment Management in London.

How does your Zurich office work with your offices in largest position? London, New York and Chicago when it comes to stock “60–70 positions. The benchmark we use is fairly flat with no selection? large benchmark positions so that doesn’t distort the holdings “There’s not much overlap on the mid cap fund as the regional list like it might if it was benchmarked to the S&P 500 where offices tend to focus on large or small cap but there is some companies like Exxon or Apple may represent over 2–2.5% of overlap where the analyst coverage comes down to the mid that index. Our positions in absolute terms would be from 1– cap space, so maybe 10 – 20% of what we do is covered by an 3% with an active weighting varying between 1–2%.” analyst in Chicago.” Which benchmark do you use? So do you work from a recommended list? “The S&P 400.” “No, not on the mid cap fund.” What is your average holding period? How do you use UBS sell-side research in your process? “18 – 24 months.” “There’s no particular bias because it’s UBS. We treat them like any other sell-side firm”. What’s your active share? (how much will you bet against the index?) How does working in Zurich compare with London (given “Our active positions are typically from 1-2% and we invest that you used to work in London)? 50% outside the benchmark so our overall aggregate active “Corporate access is better in Zurich as there’s not so much position has got to be around 80%.” competition and UBS is #1. Not every roadshow that comes to Europe comes to Zurich while every roadshow that comes to What’s the average market cap of your U.S. holdings? Europe probably goes to London - but that’s more than com- “Currently it’s about $3.5 billion which is quite similar to the pensated for by the fact that whenever a company comes to benchmark.” Zurich UBS is one of the first ports of call.” Are you constrained from investing in any sectors? Can you tell us a bit about UBS Global Asset Management and UBS Wealth Management. Are they separate? “No.”

“We do upon occasion share meetings where it makes sense. What do you think about the US market at the moment? UBS Wealth Management is one of UBS Global Asset Mange- ment’s most important clients (i.e. they invest in our mutual “We expect volatility to continue. Equities are attractively val- funds), and both are part of UBS AG whose strategy is one of ued but we’re going through an uncertain period. Removing the an integrated bank, so there is linkage between the two divi- stimulus and dealing with fiscal deficits will result in uncertainty sions on many levels. Operationally we are separate though, and swings in sentiment leading to sustained volatility - so and both capable of operating on a stand-alone basis.” more of what we’ve had so far this year really.”

How would you describe your investment style? Favored sectors?

“We are style agnostic. We are not value investors but we pay “None as we tend to be bottom-up. Everything we do tends to very close attention to valuation.” be a fall out from that bottom-up view. Our top-down view will colour our perception and the assumptions we are prepared to How do you know if you want to meet a company? make about certain companies. For example, we feel consum- ers are under pressure in the U.S. and with the fiscal situation, “We look at what companies do and see if it holds inherent we think the consumer is going to remain subdued and this interest. Most companies that come through we try and see as impacts the assumptions we use in our forecast models. Rela- they can all provide information and insight that is useful even tive to our expectations, we find valuations too high in the con- if they may ultimately lack merit as potential investments.” sumer sector so consequently we are underweight that sector.

Financials also. We are still unconvinced about the banking Is there anything you won’t invest in? sector, believing credit problems will take longer to work “No. We are open to ideas.” through relative to implied market expectations so we’re also underweight there.” Typically how many US positions will you hold, what’s your average position size and what is the value of your Favored themes? ers and processors. So companies like Schlumberger, Chev- ron, EOG, Tullow, Transcanda, Valero and Cameco are all “We are finding opportunities in biotech and industrials. Utili- potential investments. Typically we would follow the MSCI ties too.” classifications but can play tangential themes as well. We are

not purely restricted to the MSCI classification. On the materi- Favored companies? als side that includes metals & mining, pulp & paper, packag- “Within industrials we favour companies with strong manage- ing, chemicals and building materials so companies like Mon- ment, attractive end markets and the ability to drive returns on santo, Potash, BASF, Dow, Rio, BHP, Goldcorp and Lafarge investment higher – examples of such companies would be might be typical investments.” Roper Industries and Pall Corporation.” How important is it to meet management? Recent sales? “It’s very important but it’s not a condition to investing. We do “M&A activity has been a feature of the markets this year, and like to meet management. It does help. It helps raise conviction we have benefitted from this action. We recently sold positions in a story when you’ve met management.” in NBTY (a health and vitamin supplements company) and Hewitt Associates (a consulting business) both of which were Who do you prefer to meet? the subject of takeover bids.” “CEO, COO, CFO. Probably in that order. For mid caps it is

usually the CEO or CFO that we see. Access within the mid Do you have a target price in mind when you buy a stock? cap space is generally to that level. We don’t often see just IR. “We look for 20% upside. We do our valuation work. We go Some ultra large caps send high operating group managing into a position knowing how undervalued we think the stock is level rather than board level. It can be interesting to meet the and then we constantly review and revise it as the holding ma- guys in charge of the individual businesses. If we are meeting tures. Quite often that initial expectation is revised through the management once or twice a year and it’s a mid cap company, life of the holding. Ideally the expectation moves up and up and we do like to meet CEO or CFO though.” you end up holding it much longer than you thought. In other instances where it’s more a valuation call from a deeply over- Which U.S. names who stand out in terms of IR? sold position our time frame may be shorter and our target “There are a large number that do a good job in terms of travel- price is a bit more fixed. Volatility often impacts how long the ling and getting out. Any company that’s getting senior man- holding is in the portfolio. If you buy and three months later the agement on the road regularly- and management is prepared stock’s gone up 25% there’s less chance that the story will to talk openly, in detail and not just to script - is doing a good have materially altered so you are more likely to sell – thus job in terms of investor relations.” volatility can drive a shorter holding period.” How many companies do you see a year? Can you invest in Canadian companies? “In Zurich I see 100–150 managements a year and I supple- “We don’t. We restrict ourselves to companies with their pri- ment that with trips to the U.S. and Europe or another region if mary listing and primary operations in the U.S. It provides clar- there’s a conference. I try and get to the U.S. at least once a ity for investors and clarity for us. We’re hard and fast with our year.” market cap bands too. We don’t put new money into compa- nies below the $500 million market cap threshold, though we Any tips for US companies visiting Zurich? Should it be a do hold some below $500 million because of market perform- different message/delivery style? ance. We don’t hold any above $10 billion unless they are a benchmark constituent. If they are above $10 billion and non- “Not really. In London I was focused more on larger caps. I like benchmark we have to sell. Currently the largest benchmark the access and the approach I get here. I like management market cap is $8 billion so anything above $10 billion we sell who are happy to do Q&A or walk you through a story. That within a month.” flexible approach is good, particularly when management are prepared to talk openly and in detail. In mid cap, our universe Do you vote your proxy? is 1500 companies and we don’t know them all. Part of what we use company visits for is to find out about a company so “UBS manages proxy voting through a centralised process.” while we’ll do work before they come so that we have an idea,

it is useful as a means of discovery and not just to discuss the Are SRI considerations important to you? finer points on our model or the last quarter’s results. We often “We have a team that manages global SRI funds. We share take a more strategic high level view and want a wide ranging ideas and NBTY was an idea that came from our SRI team so conversation. I do generally find management quite flexible, there is some crossover. We don’t have any such restrictions and appreciate that.” though (i.e. can invest in defense and tobacco stocks for exam- ple).” Where’s the S&P 400 going to end the year?

I’m somewhat cautious and we expect this volatility to continue How do you measure your performance? so I don’t necessarily expect it to break out of its current range. “Against benchmark (S&P400) and against peer groups within I believe it’s moving more to the top of its range now, but has addressable markets.” room to run a little further before testing this range. It could end the year up to 5% ahead of where it is now.” Talking about your materials and energy funds – exactly what type of companies do you invest in?

“There are no size constraints. On the energy side – it’s oil, gas, coal and uranium focused and includes service compa- nies, resource owners and developers and product transport-

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