Fund Evaluator:

SEI Emerging Markets Debt F (SIT) Overview

SEI Emerging Markets Debt F (SIT) (SITEX) is an actively managed Taxable Bond Emerging Markets Bond fund. SEI launched the fund in 1997.

The investment seeks to maximize total return. Under normal circumstances, the fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in fixed income securities of emerging market issuers. It will invest in debt securities of government, government-related, supranational entities, and corporate issuers in emerging market countries, as well as debt securities of entities organized to restructure the outstanding debt of any such issuers. The fund is non-diversified.

About SEI Emerging Markets Debt F (SIT) (SITEX)

There are 12 members of the management team with an average tenure of 4.74 years: Wim Vandenhoeck (2024), Louis Hanover (2018), Michael Cirami (2024), Anthony Karaminas (2021), Tina Vandersteel (2023), Sarah Orvin (2024), Hardeep Khangura (2015), Andrew Szmulewicz (2018), Fernando Phillips (2025), Ian Sims (2018), Hemant Baijal (2024), Keith Lloyd (2018). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: Bloomberg Global Aggregate TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and JPM EMBI Global Diversified TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. SEI Emerging Markets Debt F (SIT) has 830 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 8.9% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a nondiversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

SEI Emerging Markets Debt F (SIT) is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond fund group. SEI Emerging Markets Debt F (SIT) has 90.1% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 0.0%. There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 91.0% (0.9% domestic bond, 90.1% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). SEI Emerging Markets Debt F (SIT) has 9.5% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $850 million in total assets, which is above the $325 million average for the Emerging Markets Bond category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

SITEX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The SEI Emerging Markets Debt F (SIT) expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Emerging Markets Bond category. SEI Emerging Markets Debt F (SIT) has an expense ratio of 1.04%, which is 3% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a C. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. SEI Emerging Markets Debt F (SIT) has a portfolio turnover rate of 6%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.1 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 83% for the Emerging Markets Bond category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, SEI Emerging Markets Debt F (SIT) returned -0.6%, which earned it a grade of B, as the Emerging Markets Bond category had an average return of -0.9%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

SEI Emerging Markets Debt F (SIT) has a trailing yield of 6.29%, which is above the 5.99% category average. The fund normally distributes its income quarterly and its capital gains annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

SEI Emerging Markets Debt F (SIT) Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 3.5%, 1.0 percentage points better than the category, which translates into a grade of A. The fund has returned 12.6% over the past year (grade of A), 9.6% over the past three years (grade of B) and 3.3% per year over the past five years (grade of B) and 3.3% per year over the past 10 years (grade of D).

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