Mondrian International Equity has a solid strategy, experienced managers and analysts, and a committed parent. It receives a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Bronze. This is the only publicly available mutual fund offered by Mondrian Investment Partners, a boutique firm in London. Founded in the early 1990s, Mondrian is still led by its founders, and relies on the dividend focused, patient value strategy that they brought to the firm.
Lead manager Elizabeth Desmond has been with the firm since the beginning, and thus is well versed in its approach. She works closely with comanagers Nigel Bliss and Melissa Platt, who have been with the firm since 1995 and 2004, respectively. Indeed, they usually make decisions unanimously. Several of the analysts on the compact team supporting this fund also have long tenures at the firm.
Analyst Rating is the summary expression of Morningstar’s forward-looking analysis of a fund. Morningstar analysts assign the ratings on a five-tier scale with three positive ratings of Gold, Silver, and Bronze, a Neutral rating, and a Negative rating. The Analyst Rating is based on the analyst’s conviction in the fund’s ability to outperform its peer group and/or relevant benchmark on a risk adjusted basis over the long term. If a fund receives a positive rating of Gold, Silver, or Bronze, it means Morningstar analysts think highly of the fund and expect it to outperform over a full market cycle of at least five years. The Analyst Rating is not a market call, and it is not meant to replace investors’ due-diligence process. It cannot assess whether a fund is the right fit for a particular portfolio and risk tolerance. Morningstar evaluates funds based on five key pillars–Process, Performance, People, Parent, and Price. Analysts assign a rating of Positive, Neutral, or Negative to each pillar. Analyst Rating Scale – Gold: Best-of-breed fund that distinguishes itself across the five pillars and has garnered the analysts’ highest level of conviction. Silver: Fund with advantages that outweigh the disadvantages across the five pillars and with sufficient level of analyst conviction to warrant a positive rating. Bronze: Fund with notable advantages across several, but perhaps not all, of the five pillars.
The Mondrian International Equity Fund is overall rated 4 stars for the period ending March 31, 2018 out of 265 US OE Foreign Large Value Funds. Morningstar rankings are based on risk adjusted returns, and the overall Morningstar Rating for a fund is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-year, five-year and ten-year (if applicable) Morningstar Ratings metrics. For each fund with at least a three year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund’s monthly performance (including the effects of sales charges, loads, and redemption fees), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of funds in each category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receives 2 stars and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Mondrian International Equity Fund was rated against the following numbers of U.S.-domiciled Foreign Large value funds over the following time periods: 265 funds in the last three years, 216 funds in the last five years and 140 funds in the last ten years. With respect to these Foreign Large Value funds, the Mondrian International Equity Fund received a Morningstar Rating of 3 stars, 4 stars and 4 stars for the three, five and ten-year periods, respectively. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
The performance data quoted represents past performance. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost and current performance may be lower or higher than performance quoted. For performance data current to the most recent month end, please call 888-832-4386. NAV returns since inception of February 4, 1992 when the Fund was the Delaware Pooled Trust International Equity Fund. The Fund was reorganized into the Mondrian International Equity Fund on March 14, 2016. It continues to be managed in the same way.
Gross expense ratio: 0.88%, net expense ratio: 0.79%. Mondrian Investment Partners Limited (the Adviser) has contractually agreed to waive fees and reimburse expenses to the extent necessary to keep Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses (excluding interest, taxes, brokerage commissions, acquired fund fees and expenses and nonroutine expenses from exceeding 0.79% of the Funds average daily net assets until February 28, 2019.
