Bill Fries, the longtime portfolio manager of Thornburg Investment Management's Value Fund and most recently the fund's co-manager, will step down Jan. 1, but he will remain with Thornburg as co-manager of the firm's International Value Fund.

Edward Maran and Connor Browne will continue to co-manage the Value Fund.

Maran and Browne's "material contributions in stock selections and overall positioning have been increasingly reflected in portfolio performance in recent years," Fries said in a statement released by Thornburg Investment Management, the company that manages Thornburg's nine fixed-income and six equity funds, as well as separate accounts for high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors.

"The Value Fund is as big as it's ever been, and we're having our best performance," Fries said in a recent telephone interview. "It's been fun."

So far this year, Value Fund is up about 40 percent, while International Value Fund has risen around 30 percent.

"We expect this transition to be seamless based on the collaborative nature of TIM's team approach to portfolio management," Brian McMahon, CEO of Thornburg Investment Management, said in the statement.

Fries started the Value Fund in 1995 after moving to Santa Fe to launch TIM's first stock fund.

The International Value Fund, with an estimated $20 billion in assets, is Thornburg's largest fund. "It needs as much attention as I can give it," Fries said.

Maran joined TIM as an associate portfolio manager in 2002 and was named managing director in 2004. He has been co-portfolio manager of the Value Fund since 2006.

Browne joined TIM in 2001 as associate portfolio manager and in 2006 was promoted to co-portfolio manager for the Value Fund. At the same time, he was named managing director.

Maran and Browne said it had been a good opportunity to work with Fries on the Value Fund for the last seven years. They plan to keep Value Fund on the same course, utilizing what Fries calls "comprehensive value investing."

That includes buying shares that have declined in value, but also those "consistent growers," whose prices are expected to rise because of increasing profits, and "emerging franchises," companies that are expected to assume dominant positions in their market segments.

"Ed and I believe strongly in this philosophy and this approach," Browne said.
"All three of us are excited about the position" of the Value Fund.

As for the surging stock market, "we're cautiously optimistic about what's going on the market," Browne said. "We think the economy has bottomed, and the government's activity in keeping interest rates low is very supportive. For us, stocks are still attractively priced going forward."

One recent purchase of Value Fund, Maran said, is NCR, the former National Cash Register, which transformed itself into a high-tech company that makes ATMs and other electronic devices.

NCR has a leading share of its market globally and is prospering with the weakness of the dollar, which makes its products cheaper than those of its international competitors.

In the long run, Maran and Browne expect the dollar will weaken more against the Chinese currency, the renminbi, which will make China a stronger export market for U.S. goods and services.

Whatever happens to the dollar, Fries and his colleagues plan to keep traveling overseas to visit prospective companies that might make good investments for Thornburg mutual funds.

"You can learn a lot in this global economy through travel," Fries said, explaining that an investment manager who, for example, just visited Ford and GM plants and didn't do the same with Toyota or Nissan would be missing an important segment of the auto market.

"We do research on a global basis," he said.

1. Ace Ltd.
2. Microsoft Corp.
3. Entergy Corp.
4. Marathon Oil Corp.
5. Swiss Re

1. Teva Pharma
2. National Bank of Greece
3. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
4. Novo/Nordisk
5. LVMH Moet Hennessy

Source: Thornburg Investment Management