Fund Sees Success With Quality Growth Strategy

George Georgiev: Bronze-rated John Hancock International Growth benefited tremendously when it entered into a subadvisory relationship with Wellington Management in 2014, utilizing manager John Boselli and his quality growth strategy. Although the history of the fund under Boselli is short, he has run this strategy with great success in a separate account since 2009.

Boselli and his team focus on companies with high organic growth, quality business models, and low share price relative to free cash flow. They also like to see the companies return capital to shareholders via dividends and share buybacks. Boselli appears to have been very successful at getting the most of Wellington's talented analyst team. Although this is a bottom-up fund, the strategy does take into account industry fundamentals and the global macro cycle.

The fund does sport an above average expense ratio, but it has gradually been declining as assets have grown. One concern for the fund is that the high turnover of the portfolio combined with the high growth of AUM will cause increased transaction expenses. Nonetheless, we have confidence that Boselli and team will be able to cope with that.