T. Rowe Price takes out Global Equities (Regional and Emerging Markets) category

For Murray Brewer, T. Rowe Price director of Australia and New Zealand, the strength of the fund manager’s analysts is one of the key factors to its taking first place in Global Equities (Regional and Emerging Markets) in this year’s Money Management/Lonsec Fund Manager of the Year.

“We have analysts who are on the ground around the world in many locations, and then we’ve got global sector portfolios, and any number of regional portfolios, and we pick the best ideas throughout the whole firm and then collaborate very closely with the portfolio managers who are buying stocks in a sector or portfolio base and then the analysts who are putting those ideas up into portfolios,” he said.

According to Brewer, the benchmark for Asia is flawed.

“Similar to our [global equities broad cap] strategy, we’re not concerned about hitting the benchmark, we just want the very best ideas in the market.

“So if you look at the Asia ex-Japan benchmark, the market cap is skewed towards those companies that have big manufacturing bases, that export to the United States, while we would rather be looking at the [gross domestic product] growth of the region and investing on those lines,” he said.

Lonsec noted that the portfolio manager, Anh Lu, displays encouraging conviction in her management of the fund, which translates the company’s research insight into significant positions in both sector and country weight.

“Lu has extensive experience in the region as an investment banker, but also from working as a fund manager for many, many years,” Brewer said.

The product was one of the best performing products in the market over a five to 10-year period, he added.

Consecutive three-time finalist Premium China Fund has used its risk-adjusted return to good effect in being nominated as a finalist in the category.

“We always talk about risk-adjusted return and I believe we have the highest return with the lowest volatility in this game, and in the four and half years since we’ve launched, we’re giving investors more than 18 per cent compound interest each year, including the [global financial crisis],” said the executive director of Premium China Funds Management, Simon Wu.

The 17-year track record of the fund’s management capability was also a key factor in the fund’s performance, Wu said.

Wu believed the consistent growth of China over the last five to 10 years has lent growth and strength to the fund.

“China has been growing at 9.8 per cent for the last 30 years,” he pointed out.

Finalist Aberdeen Asset Management provided long-term capital growth through direct or indirect investment in emerging stocks worldwide or through companies with significant activities in emerging markets. It delivered returns of more than 8.4 per cent last year.