Investing in Asia

Morus193
Morus193 Posts: 15 Forumite
in Savings & investments
As someone who has almost zero experience in investing in Asia I would be greatful if someone could give me some advice. I am interested in having some investments in Asia as that is where I believe the biggest growth will come from in the future, what funds/companies are worth considering for investing? How would I purchase/invest with these companies? I would like to include countries like China, India, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Singapore. I don't mind having medium to high risk investments. I appreciate any suggestions, thanks.
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Comments

  • Linton
    Linton Posts: 17,160 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary Hung up my suit!
    There are plenty of funds that invest in companies in the Asia/Pacific region. Go to https://www.trustnet.co.uk, select the "Asia/Pacific excluding Japan" Sector and Search.

    You can buy the funds direct from the management company but it's better to have an account with one of the online brokers. If you arent aware of the mechanics of buying funds just ask - there is no point in people going into detail if you already know.
  • dividendhero
    dividendhero Posts: 2,417 Forumite
    I'm a great believer in Asia and hold funds in SOI,HEFL & AAIF

    As you might guess, i like my divis too
  • ArchBair
    ArchBair Posts: 153 Forumite
    dividendhero wrote: »
    I'm a great believer in Asia and hold funds in SOI,HEFL & AAIF

    As you might guess, i like my divis too

    If you don't mind me asking but why three different IT's to cover Asia ex Japan?
  • wilko116
    wilko116 Posts: 31 Forumite
    How about Schroder Asia alpha plus fund. It has a good track record.
  • Voyager2002
    Voyager2002 Posts: 15,283 Forumite
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    Do not make the mistake of thinking of "Asia" as being all the same. It consists of different regions with markets at differeng points of the economic cycle, and come to that at differing levels of economic maturity. So you need different approaches for the different regions. For example:

    Chinese markets seem in general to be over-valued. If I were to invest here I would want to be very careful about which companies I chose, and so would look for strong active management: no way would I put money in here using a tracker. Or perhaps you could consider the approach adopted by Aberdeen: they only invest in China via Hong Kong. This approach has cost them since they have missed out on gains in the short term, but may end up protecting them from even greater losses;
    Singapore: a tiny country but a mature and well-regulated market, the sort of place where using a tracker makes sense. Similar remarks apply to Australia.

    Decide how much exposure you want to the different regions in Asia, and choose your investment accordingly. Personally I prefer to use Investment Trusts since on the whole I want active management and I want the managers to be able to make long-term and potentially illiquid investments. I have for long held the India Fund (an IT traded in New York) and more recently bought the Schroder's Asia IT.
  • Prism
    Prism Posts: 3,803 Forumite
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    Most of the funds you will find are tech and finance heavy. If you want to invest in Tencent, Samsung, Alibaba, TSM, AIA and China Pacific Insurance you have lots of choices. These are the funds that have been doing well in the short term. They tend to be China and Hong Kong focused

    If you want something more defensive then look at one of the Stuart Investors funds. These are more focused on the Asia consumer growth story and have not been as popular over the last few years. They have historically had the best long term performance. They have more of an India focus than China. Fundsmith FEET also falls into this category though has a short history
  • MonroeM
    MonroeM Posts: 174 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
    edited 3 December 2017 at 3:24PM
    ArchBair wrote: »
    If you don't mind me asking but why three different IT's to cover Asia ex Japan?

    I think some people prefer to spread a particular region over a few different funds or IT's and the three mentioned to do have quite high yields. However, I personally just hold one IT for growth in this region which is the Schroder Asia Pacific (SDP) IT.
  • ArchBair
    ArchBair Posts: 153 Forumite
    MonroeM wrote: »
    I think some people prefer to spread a particular region over a few different funds or IT's and the three mentioned to do have quite high yields. However, I personally just hold one IT for growth in this region which is the Schroder Asia Pacific (SDP) IT.

    I also only hold 1 IT for this region Fidelity Asian Values (FAS).
  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 17,619 Forumite
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    There's also the option of trackers which cover the region for very low cost
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • Voyager2002
    Voyager2002 Posts: 15,283 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    jimjames wrote: »
    There's also the option of trackers which cover the region for very low cost

    IMHO not a good idea, above all for China.
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