AllianceBernstein has launched the AB US Value Portfolio, which will invest in high-quality large US companies at attractive valuations.
Managed by Cem Inal, chief investment officer, US large-cap value equities, the new fund has been seeded by a client and has $229m in assets under management. It is domiciled in Luxembourg and registered investors in 13 European countries including the UK.
Inal aims to identify large companies with strong fundamentals that have been misunderstood by other investors, where there are company-specific or industry-level catalysts. The fund will have 45-60 holdings.
Inal said: “The current value opportunity is substantial in the US with many successful and growing companies being valued at large discounts to their intrinsic cash flows.”
The new fund will employ the same bottom-up investment approach as AB’s US Large Cap Value strategy, which was established in 1973 and has been available to American investors through the $444m AB Value fund since 2001.
This US mutual fund, which Inal also manages, has beaten the Russell 1000 Value index over one, three and five years to 30 June 2024 but it is behind its benchmark since inception. Its largest holdings are Walmart, Wells Fargo, insurer the Progressive Corp, energy company Baker Hughes and NXP Semiconductors.