On the long list of risks that Riopelle and her team monitor, protectionism and U.S.-China trade are a big focus. While U.S. politics hog the headlines, investors aren’t paying as much attention to it, she said. Canadian investors frequently ask about the housing market, interest rates and oil prices with half of the nation’s benchmark index heavily weighted to financials and energy stocks.
Riopelle oversees multiple funds under the Select banner, including the RBC Select Balanced Portfolio, the biggest investment fund in Canada with C$37 billion of assets. It’s returned 12% over the past 12 months, beating 88% of its peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Staying Competitive
As passive investing becomes increasingly popular, she’s also looking for new sources of alpha including private markets, which managers started entering about a year ago. The firm closed the first tranche for its RBC Canadian Core Real Estate Fund this month, raising C$1.25 billion, and has a C$8 billion mortgage business that she believes are good sources of alpha for clients.
“The traditional model of a fundamental portfolio manager picking stocks -- it’s going to be harder and harder to support that going forward,” she said.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.