The fund has been managed by Matthew Dobbs since inception in 1995 and has become the largest trust in the sector.
Performance of the fund has been very strong over the last 3 years, 51% vs 29% for the MSCI Asia ex Japan benchmark, which has been driven by large weightings to Chinese and technology based stocks.
Chinese equities make up around half of the portfolio (this is c3.7% overweight compared to the benchmark) and this has been steadily increasing over the last couple of years. Mr Dobbs gains exposure to these stocks through the Chinese and Hong Kong stock exchanges, traditionally preferring the Hong Kong listed companies due to tougher listing requirements and better corporate governance. Mr Dobbs feels that this weighting is justified due to favourable economic conditions and a shift towards services and the consumer.
Technology is the largest sector weighting in this fund at 34%. Over the last 18 months the technology sector has seen strong performance and those listed in Asia have been no different. Despite the strong rise in the share price of companies like Alibaba and Tencent (the Chinese equivalent of Amazon and Facebook respectively), Mr Dobbs feels that these companies will continue to be the key beneficiaries of the technological disruption going on in the region. Tencent already has around 320m users who spend more than 4 hours a day on the platform.
Arguably, the large weightings to China and technology increase the risk of the fund. However, over the 23 years since inception, Mr Dobbs and his team have established a great track-record of identifying drivers of growth for the fund to benefit from.