Ninety One Global Special Situations I Acc
Why is this fund on our radar?
Ninety One Global Special Situations offers a concentrated portfolio of c. 40 stocks, focussing on out-of-favour companies with the potential to recover. Alessandro Dicorrado, who has managed the fund since 2016, selects companies based on their individual merits rather than broader economic or market trends, without constraints on company size, country, or industry, and views the best opportunities as idiosyncratic in nature (i.e. driven by company-specific factors).
The fund also has a tilt toward smaller- and medium-sized companies, a less-efficient segment of the equity market, notably as it receives less coverage from analysts, and which can present mispricing opportunities. As a result, the fund provides differentiated exposure to global equities and is likely to behave differently from standard global equity indices.
Ninety One Global Special Situations made it onto our list thanks to its strong track record, notably outperforming its benchmark over the past five years (to 31/10/2025), despite having little exposure to the larger companies in the MSCI ACWI Index that have dominated market returns since 2023, while also experiencing smaller losses in falling markets.
Skip to Our VerdictPerformance
Alessandro’s emphasis on out-of-favour companies, combined with the idiosyncratic nature of the portfolio, means that Ninety One Global Special Situations is likely to behave differently from global equity indices.
Ninety One Global Special Situations is also likely to behave differently from traditional “value” strategies - those focussing on companies that appear undervalued relative to their assets, expected earnings, or dividends - because Alessandro applies his own interpretation of this style and often pursues opportunities outside classic value sectors such as financials or energy. We think 2023 provides an example of this: the value factor largely underperformed the broader market, yet Ninety One Global Special Situations outperformed both. Another key feature of the portfolio is its larger allocations to attractively valued markets (relative to more expensive markets like the US), such as the UK and emerging markets, and its smaller weighting of US equities compared to the MSCI ACWI Index. This positioning could enable the fund to benefit in periods when investors rotate out of the US or reappraise the merits of non-US markets. The chart below shows the calendar-year performance since 2020 of the Ninety One Global Special Situations fund compared to an ETF tracking the MSCI World Index and the IA Global sector. Unlike Ninety One Global Special Situations’ benchmark, the MSCI ACWI Index, the MSCI World Index only contains companies from developed markets.
calendar-year performance
Source: Morningstar
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results
That said, the fund may struggle in periods when investors favour fast-growing companies and pay less attention to whether the share price fairly reflects that future growth. This was notably the case in 2020, when the market focussed on companies embedded in the digital economy and perceived as beneficiaries of COVID lockdowns, as they supported the transition to ‘digital first’ behaviours. However, interest rates were extremely low at the time, which encouraged investors to seek stronger returns from higher growth stocks that appeared well positioned to thrive in that environment. Since 2022, interest rates have been higher and could remain above the levels seen in the years following the 2008 global financial crisis. In this type of environment, investors tend to prefer financially strong, reasonably priced companies, which could play into the strengths of Ninety One Global Special Situations.
Portfolio
Ninety One Global Special Situations aims to offer investors a portfolio of undervalued, out-of-favour companies with recovery potential. When building the portfolio, Alessandro ignores the benchmark and selects stocks based on their individual merits, building a portfolio of his best ideas across various geographies and sectors. This results in a concentrated portfolio of c. 40 stocks, which could deliver strong returns if the stock selection proves successful, but also means each investment could have a meaningful impact on performance if not.
While Alessandro defines the fund’s strategy as value-oriented, he believes the best opportunities are idiosyncratic in nature and not necessarily found in traditional value sectors, where he sees a lack of businesses meeting his criteria. As a result, the fund’s positioning differs from typical value strategies, which is arguably reflected in its current sector allocation. For example, Ninety One Global Special Situations has a sizeable overweight in the technology sector relative to the MSCI ACWI Value Index - a sector not typically associated with the value factor - and underweights in the energy and financial services sectors, which are more commonly favoured by traditional value investors.
At the geographic level, the fund invests less in North America, where companies tend to be more expensive, and favours regions such as the UK and Latin America, where companies are generally more attractively valued. In addition, small- and mid-sized companies make up just over half of the portfolio. This is a less efficient part of the market that can present potential mispricing opportunities. The chart below shows the fund’s allocation across the market-capitalisation spectrum.
Market-cap allocation
Our Verdict
In our view, Ninety One Global Special Situations offers differentiated exposure to global equities as well as a distinctive approach to value investing. As Alessandro focusses on idiosyncrasies and is willing to explore opportunities outside traditional value sectors, the fund could still generate attractive returns even when the value factor is out of favour.
The fund also has a distinctive geographic positioning, investing less in US equities - which tend to dominate global equity indices as well as many funds in the IA Global sector - and placing greater emphasis on regions such as the UK and Latin America. As such, the fund could be well positioned when investors rotate out of North America, where stocks are generally expensive, and into more attractively valued regions. In addition, the fund’s tilt toward small- and mid-sized companies provides exposure to a less-efficient segment of the market, potentially richer in mispriced opportunities, and ignored by many of its sector peers.
Overall, we believe Ninety One Global Special Situations could serve as a useful diversifier within a portfolio. That said, investors concerned about elevated valuations or the dominance of a few large technology stocks in global equity indices may also consider the fund as a standalone option.
Key Risks
- May lag global indices in growth-driven markets
- Fund has historically been significantly more volatile than its benchmark
- Tilt toward smaller companies could mean higher sensitivity to an economic slowdown
