FUND SELECTOR ASIA PACIFIC EX JAPAN EQUITY
Top ranked funds Newcomers
“
Several of
[Neptune’s] funds,
including Asia Pacific
Opportunities, are
managed by fund
managers who were
previously sector
analysts and who
had obviously
proven themselves
to be good enough
to manage funds
”
Top 3 performing new funds vs world index
%
150
120
90
60
30
AIG Southeast Asia
Small & Mid Cap Y
0 Schroder Asian Alpha Plus A Acc
Mar ’09 May Jul Sep Nov
Figures in base currency. Source: Morningstar
Top 10 Asia Pacific ex Japan equity funds with less than a 3-year track record
1-year 1-year 1-year 1-year 1-year Fund Launch Domicile
% chg Alpha Beta R² volatility size ($m) date
T Rowe Price Asian ex Japan Equity A 99.88 0.48 0.91 0.73 2.98 89.03 28 Jan ’08 Luxembourg
AIG Southeast Asia Small & Mid Cap Y 95.85 0.4 0.91 0.84 2.77 14.69 12 Dec ’07 Ireland
Schroder Asian Alpha Plus A Acc 85.54 0.36 0.81 0.89 2.39 48.6 30 Nov ’07 UK
Clerical Medical Far Eastern Focus 1 78.87 0.27 0.82 0.81 2.55 0.07 19 Jan ’09 UK
Invesco Asia Consumer Demand 71.43 0.19 0.91 0.93 2.65 207.46 25 Mar ’08 Luxembourg
Clerical Medical Far Eastern 1 69.88 0.02 0.98 0.93 2.86 315.23 19 Jan ’09 UK
Neptune Asia Pacific Opportunities A 56.56 -0.1 0.97 0.86 2.92 15.13 3 Dec ’07 UK
JF Asia Domestic Opportunities 55.61 -0.03 0.98 0.87 2.93 461.2 14 May ’07 Hong Kong
Cavendish Asia Pacific Retail Inc N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/S 15 Jun ’09 UK
iShares MSCI Pacific ex Japan Inc N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 22.6 20 Apr ’09 Ireland
To 23 Mar ’10. Bid to bid, £, gross income, no cap. Source: Morningstar
FUND PICKER’S COMMENT
PAUL KIM, DIRECTOR,
PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT,
FUNDQUEST UK
When taking a look at
the performance over the
past year of the funds in
the newcomers list, six out
of the eight of them have
outperformed the sector
average return of 66.2%.
The best of these, the
T Rowe Price Asian ex
Japan Equity Fund, has
almost doubled over the
period, returning 99.9%
making it the best performing
fund across all three
lists. But it has to be said
that although the fund is
new – having only launched
in 2008 – the manager
Frances Dydasco has been
running this mandate in
the institutional space with
a track record going back
to 2006.
Another group worth
highlighting is Neptune,
which has a tendency to
train and promote talent
T Rowe Price Asian ex Japan Eq A
MSCI World
from within the company.
Several of its funds, including
Neptune Asia Pacific
Opportunities, are managed
by fund managers
who were previously sector
Top newcomers – 1-year risk/return
50
JF Asia Domestic Opportunities
2.25
2.5 2.75 3
Standard deviation (%)
To 23 Mar ’10. No performance figs for Cavendish or iShares
funds. Bid to bid, £, gross inc, no cap. Source: Morningstar
analysts and who had obviously
proven themselves
to be good enough to
manage funds.
In this instance, the fund
is co-managed by Ewan
Thompson and Douglas
Turnbull. The fund has had
a rather disappointing start,
sitting in the third quartile
over one year, but the
group has a strong performance-driven
culture so
I would expect some turnaround
in the short-term.
Schroder Asian Alpha
Plus is Matthew Dobbs’
return to managing open
ended-funds for Schroder,
having managed Asian
investment trusts for the
group for a number of
years. As with T Rowe
Price, while the fund is
new, the manager has been
with Schroders for over 20
years and certainly knows
the ins and outs of the
Asian stock markets.
We tend not to invest in
funds without an established
track record but if
we know the managers,
we might well invest in
their funds irrespective, or
else we would keep them
in mind as a future investment
opportunity.
40 PORTFOLIO ADVISER [www.portfolio-adviser.com] MAY 2010
Jan ’10
Mar
FUND ANALYSIS
Return (%)
110
95
80
65
Schroder Asian
Alpha Plus A Acc
Clerical Medical
Far Eastern Focus 1
■ Neptune’s Ewan Thompson and Douglas Turnbull say they remain
focused on the long-term opportunities in the larger, domestic
economies of Asia, with significant overweight positions in China,
India and Indonesia.
■ Thompson points out that in the ’90s, emerging economies
accounted for just 8% of world GDP growth, although over
the course of the past decade this has risen to around a third.
■ Cavendish Asia Pacific Fund was launched in 2009, and is
managed by Liz Evans. It has a bias towards the shares of
medium and larger-sized companies, although is not restricted in
its choice of firm, either by size, market capitalisation or industry.
■ The fund has most of its money in technology, banks, basic
materials and consumer services.
■ JPMorgan’s JF Asia Domestic Opportunities is managed by
Joshua Tay in Singapore and Motoji Fukuyama in Hong Kong.
The fund was launched in May 2007 and has so far amassed
£461m in assets under management.
■ China, India and Korea make up the largest country weights
in the fund.
■ Tay and Motoji point out that the Indian government’s recent
budget was strong enough to push up selected consumerrelated
stocks.
T Rowe Price Asian ex Japan Eq A
AIG Southeast Asia
Small & Mid Cap Y
Invesco Asia
Consumer Demand
Sector avg
Neptune Asia Pacific Opp A
Clerical Medical
Far Eastern 1
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