Aberdeen's international perspective gives it two wins in a row

A wealth of international experience has led to Aberdeen Asset Management’s Emerging Opportunities Fund wining the emerging and regional markets category for the second consecutive year in the Money Management/Lonsec Fund Manager of the Year Awards.

Lonsec said the manager’s deep heritage in Asian equities investment and on-the-ground resourcing in Latin America were key factors in Aberdeen’s offer.

Stuart James, senior investment specialist at Aberdeen, said their own propriety research – rather than third party or broker research – drove the sourcing of quality companies.

“We have over 35 dedicated emerging market managers around the world located as close to the markets in which they invest as possible. Everywhere from Sao Paulo through to Europe and Asia,” he said.

Lonsec said Aberdeen’s patient and intensive company research process and high corporate governance radar served emerging markets well, and investors over the long-term.

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James said emerging markets were full of “spice”, but it was a matter of understanding the businesses they invest in and not reacting to the market or bowing to the benchmark.

“The growth naturally is there in emerging markets. It’s about finding a disciplined and quality way to access that growth without chasing the faddy end of the market,” he said.

James joked that his Scottish heritage assured they got the best prices, and prices were how they controlled risk rather than relative to the benchmark.

“For us, risk really is either buying a poor quality company or overpaying for a good quality company,” he said.

T.Rowe Price's ex Japan Equity Fund was a finalist in a year that emerging market investors found difficult, Lonsec said.

Murray Brewer, director of T. Rowe Price for Australia and New Zealand said the fund was led by an experienced fund manager and 13 researchers who were integrated into global sector teams.

“We’re not just looking at the local factors, it’s also the global trends that we assess,” he said.

Brewer said the benchmark-unaware fund relied on their research to buck trends targeting periphery markets with emerging consumers in high growth areas like Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

“We try and stay away from … fixed asset investing to some of the consumer stocks that are really growing rapidly as a result of that emerging middle class or the wealth of a lot of the Asian populations,” he said.

Premium China Fund's Premium Asia Fund was shortlisted for the fourth year in a row.

Jonathan Wu, associate director and head of distribution and operations said between Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, they have over 40 investment professionals in the “fastest growing region” of the world.

Wu said investors and advisers should alter traditional ways of thinking and educate themselves about the region because it is our “closest and largest trading partner”.

He said high debt levels in Western economies mean “investors are looking for a region to spearhead the next round of economic growth” which is “where Asia will play its key role in taking over the baton from the West”.