OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has affirmed Convictions Premium's Fund Quality Rating at 'Good' and simultaneously withdrawn the rating. Convictions Premium is a French-domiciled fund managed by Convictions AM.

Fitch is withdrawing the fund's rating as Convictions AM has chosen to stop participating in the rating process. Therefore, Fitch will no longer have sufficient information to maintain the rating. Accordingly, Fitch will no longer provide ratings or analytical coverage on Convictions Premium.

KEY RATING DRIVERS
The affirmation reflects the fund's recently enhanced, disciplined, research-driven investment process. It is also driven by the recent re-positioning and re-organisation of Convictions AM, initiated in January 2015, which Fitch views positively, following a period of relative underperformance, outflows and staff turnover in 2014.

Convictions AM was founded in 2008 by P. Delienne (chairman), who was joined by N. Duban as Managing Director and major stakeholder in July 2014. Owned by management (70%) and Next AM - La Francaise Group (30%), Convictions AM is a French boutique with an essentially French client base and around EUR270m assets under management (AUM) as at end-May 2015.

Fitch's Fund Quality Ratings combine Fitch's experience in qualitative fund analysis with rankings and performance data from Lipper, a Thomson Reuters company. Fitch's Fund Quality Ratings offer an independent, forward-looking assessment of a fund's key performance and risk attributes and consistency of longer-term returns, relative to peer group or benchmarks. The ratings focus on the fund manager's investment process, key fund performance drivers, risk management, and the quality of the fund's operational infrastructure.