Perennial gets top rating for Asian success

Perennial Investment Partners has received a five star rating from Morningstar for its wholesale IOOF/Perennial Asia Equities Trust.

Perennial managing director Anthony Patterson sees the rating as a validation of the fund manager's decision to enter the Asia market five years ago.

Patterson says the rating was a solid endorsement of the results achieved through bottom-up stock picking, and evidence of the investment potential of Asia, despite short-term growth concerns in China.

“Rather than worry too much about the short-term, we believe investors will benefit from the structural growth story across the region, including China and India,” he says.

According to Patterson, Asia remains under-represented in most Australian investor portfolios.

“The Asian region stands to benefit most from a potential upswing in China, more so given that years of fiscal discipline have resulted in low debts and net cash for many Asian companies,” he says.

China's economy has been growing at 9 per cent per annum, he said, making it the sixth largest economy and fourth largest trader in the world.

At this growth rate, Patterson says China’s economy will have absorbed 150 million additional workers from rural and agricultural areas by 2020.

“This is equivalent to more than six times the entire population of Australia in fifteen years.”

He also highlighted strong growth in the Japanese market, which is emerging from what has been an extremely subdued investment environment over the last decade.