Diversified exposure to emerging markets, capturing value and growth

The Fund normally invests at least 80% of its total assets in equity securities of companies located in emerging markets and investments that are tied economically to emerging markets, such as common stock, preferred and preference stock, depositary receipts, including American Depositary Receipts, Global Depositary Receipts, European Depositary Receipts, Swedish Depositary Receipts and other types of depositary receipts, real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) and exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) that invest in emerging markets securities. The Investment Manager primarily invests in common stock, but will use those other security types referred to above if, for example, they provide greater liquidity, the Fund cannot access common stock through a local market, or the yield rate of preferred or preference stock is deemed favourable. Typically, less than 10% of the Fund’s Net Asset Value will be invested in ETFs, and investment in ETFs will be limited to 15% of the Fund’s Net Asset Value.

The Fund generally invests in companies with market capitalisations of US$500 million or greater at the time of investment. However, the Fund may invest in smaller market capitalisation companies if, based on the quantitative investment approach described below, it finds an attractive investment with a lower market capitalisation and sufficient liquidity. The Fund may invest in any industry or sector, but generally will not invest more than 25% of its total assets in the equity securities of companies in a single industry. Typically, the Fund will hold a diversified portfolio of over 80 equity securities.

The Investment Manager uses a quantitative investment approach to purchase and sell equity securities and those other investments as detailed above for the Fund. The Investment Manager’s quantitative investment approach uses a proprietary computer model that analyses historical financial data, or “factors,” to assist in selecting investments as detailed above. The model currently analyses “stock specific” factors relating to valuation, growth, technical indicators (such as stock price momentum), competitive strength, and “top-down” factors relating to macroeconomics, currency, country and economic sector. Currently, the valuation factor category receives the highest overall weight in the model and stock-specific factors comprise approximately 75% of the score for a company. For each stock, the relative weight assigned to each stock-specific factor differs depending on its classification (for example, value, growth, momentum, capitalisation or other classifications). The relative weights of these stock-specific factors are sometimes referred to as “contextual weights.”. As the Investment Manager is continually seeking to improve model performance, the factors and their weightings in the model may change over time, or if the classification of a stock changes. By ranking companies based on a combination of these factors, the Investment Manager seeks to identify a portfolio of investments that will outperform the MSCI EM Index. In addition to its quantitative research, the Investment Manager’s fundamental research analysts review the quantitative outputs to attempt to identify and address special issues, such as significant corporate actions or management changes, which are difficult to detect quantitatively.

Please see the Prospectus and Supplement for more information. Please contact [email protected] for a Fund Application.

Nav*
€18.72
Inception
February 10, 2016
ISIN
IE00BWT3P209
Benchmark
MSCIEmergingMarketsinUSD
Minimum investment
€1,000,000
Total expense ratio
1.24%
*As of April 30, 2025
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Strategy overview

The portfolio managers discuss our Emerging Markets strategy.

Portfolio managers

Quantitative Portfolio Manager
Head of Quantitative Research
Quantitative Portfolio Manager
Quantitative Portfolio Manager
Quantitative Portfolio Manager

Performance

Table Header QTD YTD 1 year3 years Since inception
Fund -3.6%-3.6%7.3%5.5%7.7%
MSCI Emerging Markets in EUR -1.3%-1.3%8.6%2.9%8.0%
Table Header QTD YTD 1 year3 years Since inception
Fund -3.6%-3.6%7.3%5.5%7.7%
MSCI Emerging Markets in EUR -1.3%-1.3%8.6%2.9%8.0%
Table Header 20242023202220212020201920182017
Fund 23.4%14.8%-17.5%4.7%6.4%18.4%-14.4%21.1%
MSCI Emerging Markets in EUR 15.3%6.5%-14.5%5.2%8.9%21.1%-9.9%21.0%
Table Header 20242023202220212020201920182017
Fund 23.4%14.8%-17.5%4.7%6.4%18.4%-14.4%21.1%
MSCI Emerging Markets in EUR 15.3%6.5%-14.5%5.2%8.9%21.1%-9.9%21.0%

Portfolio (as of March 31, 2025)

Benchmark:
Asset Allocation
Table Header Fund
Stocks 98.5%
Cash 1.5%
Fund Characteristics
Table Header Fund Benchmark
Holdings 182 1206
Weighted avg. market cap (US $MM) $112,944 $114,984
NTM price/earnings 8.1 11.1
Price/book value 1.3 1.8
NTM EPS revision (wtd. avg.) 12.81 1.65
Net assets $7,505,815.76 -
TOP 10 ACTIVE HOLDINGS
Security Country Active weight*
China Construction Bank Corp. China 2.0%
Tencent Holdings Ltd. China 1.5%
REC Ltd. India 1.5%
Kia Corp. South Korea 1.3%
MediaTek, Inc. Taiwan 1.1%
Ping An China 1.0%
Cosco Shipping Holdings Co China 1.0%
Qifu Technology. Inc. China 0.9%
JBS SA Brazil 0.9%
Zhejiang Nhu Co China 0.8%

A "weighted average” measures a characteristic by the market capitalization of each stock. Price/book ratio is the weighted average of the price/book ratios of all the stocks in a portfolio. The P/B ratio of a company is calculated by dividing the market price of its stock by the company’s per-share book value. The price/earnings ratio is the weighted average of the price/earnings ratios of the stocks in a portfolio. “Earnings-per-share” is the portion of a company’s profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock. “Earnings-per-share year-over-year estimate growth (next 12 months)” is the average next-12-months earnings-per-share estimate from one year ago for an individual company compared with that estimate today; note that this calculation is done on a company-by-company basis and is aggregated through a weighted average based on the individual company’s weight in the corresponding index. Also note that this characteristic is supplied directly by MSCI.

*Active defined as Fund weight minus MSCI EM Index weight. Holdings are subject to change.

SECTOR WEIGHTS
Sector Fund Benchmark
Financials 21.4% 24.3%
Information Technology 21.3% 21.7%
Consumer Discretionary 17.9% 14.6%
Communication Services 12.7% 10.3%
Industrials 10.3% 6.3%
Health Care 4.2% 3.3%
Materials 3.9% 5.9%
Real Estate 2.3% 1.7%
Consumer Staples 1.8% 4.7%
Energy 1.6% 4.5%
Utilities 1.1% 2.6%
TOP 10 COUNTRIES
Country Strategy Benchmark
China 34.6% 31.3%
Taiwan 18.3% 16.9%
India 15.1% 18.5%
South Korea 13.8% 9.0%
Brazil 4.0% 4.4%
Saudi Arabia 2.8% 4.1%
United Arab Emirates 1.9% 1.4%
Turkey 1.7% 0.6%
Indonesia 1.3% 1.2%
Poland 0.8% 1.0%
Regional Allocation
  • Emerging Asia 84.6%
  • Emerging Europe, Middle East, Africa 8.4%
  • Emerging Latin America 4.7%
  • Pacific 0.7%

Commentary (As of March 31, 2025)

Highlights

  • Global equity markets began the year on an optimistic note, but US stocks faltered in March amid tax policy uncertainty and shifting tariff pronouncements. Led by emerging Latin America, emerging markets outperformed US equities in March.
  • The Trump administration’s tariff policies have roiled global markets. Within EM, Taiwan and South Korea are two of the most externally-exposed economies. In contrast, India may be less exposed as the country has one of the largest tariff differentials between exports to and imports from the United States.
  • In China, the government has refrained from aggressive spending to boost consumption despite continued disinflationary trends. China’s economy is exposed to trade disruption and the Trump administration is also working to quantify non-tariff barriers. The Portfolio was overweight Chinese stocks as of quarter-end, with the majority of Chinese exposure in technology and consumption-oriented businesses, which tend to be more domestically-focused and continue to look attractive on both self-relative valuation and growth characteristics.

Portfolio Attribution

The Fund outperformed the Index in March 2025. We use both bottom-up "stock-specific" and top-down factor categories to seek to forecast alpha for the stocks in the Portfolio's investable universe. Our bottom-up valuation, growth, and corporate events factors were positive indicators in March. Our technical (price momentum) and competitive strength factors were negative indicators. Our top-down macroeconomic, country/sector aggregate, and currency factors were negative indicators in March.

Quarterly Investment Outlook

The Trump administration’s tariff policies have roiled global markets. Within EM, Taiwan and South Korea are two of the most externally-exposed economies. In contrast, India may be less exposed as the country has one of the largest tariff differentials between exports to and imports from the United States. As of quarter-end, we were overweight South Korean and Taiwanese stocks in the Portfolio due in part to bottom-up valuation and top-down considerations. The Portfolio was underweight Indian stocks due in part to valuation and macroeconomic considerations. In China, the government has refrained from aggressive spending to boost consumption despite continued disinflationary trends. China’s economy is also exposed to trade disruption and the Trump administration is also working to quantify non-tariff barriers. The Portfolio was overweight Chinese stocks as of quarter-end, with the majority of Chinese exposure in communication services and consumption-oriented businesses, which tend to be more domestically-focused and continue to, in our view, look attractive on both self-relative valuation and growth characteristics. In Turkey, equities sold off and the lira fell late in the quarter after police detained the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, the primary opposition candidate in the 2028 presidential election. While the development is troubling, we are encouraged by the fact that President Erdogan has not abandoned the central banks hawkish interest rate policy. The Portfolio was overweight Turkish stocks as of quarter-end due in part to top-down considerations.

The market commentary expresses the portfolio managers’ views as of the date of this report and should not be relied on as research or investment advice regarding any stock. These views and the Fund holdings and characteristics are subject to change. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Any securities identified and described in this report do not represent all of the securities purchased, sold or recommended for client accounts. The reader should not assume that an investment in the securities identified was or will be profitable. Diversification does not protect against market loss. Current and future holdings are subject to risk.

Documents

Fund information: