Jean-Marie Eveillard

The credit crisis that came to a head last year and the ensuing stock market collapse did little to change the way Jean-Marie Eveillard invests.

The best way to go about it is to perform a lot of bottom-up stock research, while keeping an eye on macroeconomic trends, said Mr. Eveillard, the senior adviser to the First Eagle Funds group and senior vice president to the group’s adviser, Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder Advisers LLC.

It is a philosophy that he suspects sets him apart from other value managers.

“Value investors see themselves as bottom-up investors,” Mr. Eveillard said. “Most pay little attention to the top-down.”

So how has looking at the big picture helped him?

It reinforced his opinion that there would be several years of economic hardship and that the “intrinsic value” many managers were putting on stocks in 2008 was too high, he said.

Armed with that insight, Mr. Eveillard was able to take defensive measures that allowed his funds to outperform their peers.

The $6.7 billion First Eagle Overseas Fund (SGOVX) finished 2008 down 21%, outperforming its foreign-small/mid-value category average by 26.3 percentage points, according to Morningstar Inc.

The $18.4 billion First Eagle Global Fund (SGENX) finished last year down 21.1%, outperforming its world allocation category average by 7.9 percentage points.

The $951 million First Eagle U.S. Value Fund (FEVAX) finished 2008 down 23.1%, outperforming its large-blend category by 14 percentage points.

And the $1.6 billion First Eagle Gold Fund (SGGDX) finished last year down 14.3%, outperforming its equity precious metals category average by 15.6 percentage points.

Mr. Eveillard retired from daily portfolio management in March.

It was the second time he has retired from day-to-day management of the funds.

Mr. Evelliard originally retired in 2004, but came back in 2007 because his successor, Charles de Vaulx, with whom he once co-managed the funds, left to start his own asset management firm.

This time, however, Mr. Eveillard doesn’t expect to return to the day-to-day grind.

His departure from the management of the funds is a concern, said Rosanne Braxton, president of Schroeder Braxton & Vogt Inc., a financial advisory firm with $170 million in assets.

But it appears as if Mr. Eveillard and First Eagle’s managers have done a good job laying the groundwork for the fund group’s continued success, she said.

For example, in June 2008, Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder Advisers hired Matthew McLennan as a portfolio manager and head of the global-value team.

He joined First Eagle from Goldman Sachs Asset Management International Ltd., a unit of The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

“I think [Mr. Eveillard] definitely has people in place who share his philosophy,” said Russel Kinnel, director of mutual fund research at Morningstar.

And it is not as if Mr. Eveillard is leaving the firm altogether.

He is expected to stay on as senior adviser to First Eagle until March 2012.

“I think it does give investors some degree of comfort,” Mr. Kinnel said.

It’s just another example of Mr. Eveillard’s commitment to shareholders, he said.

It’s a commitment he’s proven repeatedly by staying true to his investment principles, even when sticking to those principles meant short-term pain, Mr. Kinnel said.

For example, Mr. Eveillard famously resisted jumping into technology stocks in the late 1990s. As a result, his funds underperformed for a short period.

It is the curse of being a good value manager, Mr. Kinnel said.

A good value manager accepts that there will be periods of short-term pain, Mr. Eveillard said. It is one reason that there are so few good value managers, he said.

“It’s not just physiological,” Mr. Eveillard said. “You may lose clients, or even your job.”

Even when shareholders were leaving his funds at the height of the tech bubble a decade ago, it was unlikely that Mr. Eveillard would be forced out.

Born in France in 1940, he started his career in 1962 with the French bank Société Générale SA and relocated to the United States in 1968.

Two years later, Mr. Eveillard began as an analyst with the SoGen International Fund. In 1979, he was appointed as portfolio manager of the fund, later named the First Eagle Global Fund.

Mr. Eveillard went on to manage the First Eagle Overseas and First Eagle Gold Funds at their inception in 1993, as well as the First Eagle U.S. Value Fund, launched in September 2001.