Help choosing a fund for Asia

Voyager2002

I would like to invest something like 10 - 30 per cent of my portfolio in Asian equities, and have identified the following three funds as being very attractive:


Fund
Total expense ration Price: expected earnings ratio S & P rating Morningstar rating
Templeton Asian Growth A Acc $
2.30% 11.82 AAA 4*

FF - South East Asia A USD
1.96% 12.55 AA 4*

Aberdeen Global Asia Pacific Equity A2
1.99% 14.30 AA 5*


Are these funds sufficiently different for it to be sensible to invest in all of them? If not, can anyone suggest a sensible way to decide between them?

blinko

mate i think its a case of do uyour own reseach, theres too many asian funds to mention you have all the facts there plus sector breakdown

its now your call
good luck

sabretoothtigger

Aberdeen I think are good, in fact the best performer but templeton also good. 2.3% in charges is crap, get a pacific tracker with hsbc and its about 0.4%

Voyager2002

OK, I don't really know how to interpret the facts.

Reaper

I'm with sabertoothtiger on this one.

2.3% TER does indeed sound excessive to me.
Aberdeen have also done me well over the years (though the Emerging Market fund so not quite the same thing).
The Aberdeen one also gets the full Morningstar 5*
The HSBC tracker is indeed apealing and I have wondered about it in the past and might have gone for it if I hadn't been so satisfied with Aberdeen's performance.

Voyager2002

OK, thank you for these helpful comments.

On the basis that past returns are not necessarily a guide to the future, I'm not sure how much attention I should pay to the fact that one of the funds gets a full five stars. In some ways I am more impressed by the S & P rating, which involves looking at how the fund managers work, and assessing the research resources and strategy that go into getting their results. A strong S & P rating is desirable, but the Templeton TER does seem like a very still price to pay for a AAA rating. And of course their manager, the legendary Dr Mark Mobius, is aged well over 70 and so is unlikely to deliver strong performance for very much longer.

Anyway, would it be sensible to combine the Fidelity Southeast Asia Fund (which includes China) with the Aberdeen one (which also includes Australia and India), or would doing so just be duplicating my exposure to the core of the region?

sunil1234

Voyager2002 wrote: »

OK, thank you for these helpful comments.

On the basis that past returns are not necessarily a guide to the future, I'm not sure how much attention I should pay to the fact that one of the funds gets a full five stars. In some ways I am more impressed by the S & P rating, which involves looking at how the fund managers work, and assessing the research resources and strategy that go into getting their results. A strong S & P rating is desirable, but the Templeton TER does seem like a very still price to pay for a AAA rating. And of course their manager, the legendary Dr Mark Mobius, is aged well over 70 and so is unlikely to deliver strong performance for very much longer.

Anyway, would it be sensible to combine the Fidelity Southeast Asia Fund (which includes China) with the Aberdeen one (which also includes Australia and India), or would doing so just be duplicating my exposure to the core of the region?

hi, use trustnet portfolio scanner, i just added these 2 to my basket at 50%/50% and, whilst i cant copy it all


ASSET ALLOCATION
49.5 ASIA/PACIFIC EX JAPAN EQUITIES
47.9 GLOBAL EMERGING MARKET EQUITIES
2.6 MONEY MARKET


SECTORS
30.0 FINANCIALS
12.5 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
11.0 CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY
9.6 INDUSTRIALS
8.5 MATERIALS
8.2 ENERGY
7.9 CONSUMER STAPLES
2.7 TELECOMMUNICATIONS UTILITIES
2.6 MONEY MARKET
7.1 Other Holdings

REGIONS
18.7 CHINA
12.8 KOREA
9.0 BRAZIL
8.1 TAIWAN
6.8 HONG KONG & CHINA
6.3 INDIA
4.8 MALAYSIA
4.3 HONG KONG
3.7 INDONESIA
25.7 Other Holdings

Top 10 Holding (as % of Portfolio)

Holding Weight Hold Name
3.7 SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO
2.0 VALE SA
1.9 PETROLEO BRASILEIRO SA PETROBRAS
1.7 BANCO BRADESCO SA
1.7 ABERDEEN GLOBAL INDIAN EQUITY
1.7 CHINA MOBILE LTD
1.6 AK BARS BANK
1.6 MASSMART
1.6 TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING
1.5 TENCENT HLDGS LIMITED

Voyager2002

Thank you Sunil (#7), but I don't really understand your response. Am I right in thinking that you created a portfolio consisting of just the two funds, and are giving details of what assets that portfolio contains? In which case, how does that tell you whether your portfolio is a better option than putting everything into one or the other fund? Besides which, information on the underlying assets might not be that helpful since the fund managers are free to sell and then buy something else: what matters is the strategy they are following when they take this kind of decision.

I find it very interesting that the portfolio has a larger holding in Brazil than in India: not something one would have expected!

sunil1234

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Thank you Sunil (#7), but I don't really understand your response. Am I right in thinking that you created a portfolio consisting of just the two funds, and are giving details of what assets that portfolio contains? In which case, how does that tell you whether your portfolio is a better option than putting everything into one or the other fund? Besides which, information on the underlying assets might not be that helpful since the fund managers are free to sell and then buy something else: what matters is the strategy they are following when they take this kind of decision.

I find it very interesting that the portfolio has a larger holding in Brazil than in India: not something one would have expected!

Hi

yes i just put those two in so you could see the combined weightings. I didnt do one at a time but rather both 50/50 so you could decide perhaps if you were happy with the overall weighted allocations.

Only hindsight would tell if one fund is better than the other if performance is what you mean but the emerging markets will have a wider remit that the asia one only.

If you take each one indivually and do the same thing then you might find a preference but obv you have to compare that with the combined. The Aberdeen one will be in South Asia but South Asia unlikely to buy Brazil and India.

purch

How about something like the Scottish Oriental Trust or the Edinburgh Dragon Trust. Neither is trading at a particularly deep discount currently, but Trusts like these have outperformed their UT/OEIC cousins.