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*
€26.19
Inception
February 10, 2016
ISIN
IE00BWT3P209
Benchmark
MSCIEmergingMarkets
Minimum investment
€1,000,000
Total expense ratio
1.24%
*As of January 26, 2026
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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 years5 years Since inception
Fund 6.6%20.2%20.2%19.4%8.0%9.5%
MSCI Emerging Markets in EUR 4.8%18.5%18.5%13.3%5.5%9.3%
Table Header QTD YTD 1 year3 years5 years Since inception
Fund 6.6%20.2%20.2%19.4%8.0%9.5%
MSCI Emerging Markets in EUR 4.8%18.5%18.5%13.3%5.5%9.3%
Table Header 202520242023202220212020201920182017
Fund 20.2%23.4%14.8%-17.5%4.7%6.4%18.4%-14.4%21.1%
MSCI Emerging Markets in EUR 18.5%15.3%6.5%-14.5%5.2%8.9%21.1%-9.9%21.0%
Table Header 202520242023202220212020201920182017
Fund 20.2%23.4%14.8%-17.5%4.7%6.4%18.4%-14.4%21.1%
MSCI Emerging Markets in EUR 18.5%15.3%6.5%-14.5%5.2%8.9%21.1%-9.9%21.0%

Portfolio (as of December 31, 2025)

Benchmark:
Asset Allocation
Table Header Fund
Stocks 98.3%
Cash 1.7%
Fund Characteristics
Table Header Fund Benchmark
Holdings 169 1197
Weighted avg. market cap (US $MM) $202,115 $220,718
NTM price/earnings 10.1 13.5
Price/book value 1.7 2.2
NTM EPS revision (wtd. avg.) 21.96 11.98
Net assets $89,500,910.42 -
TOP 10 ACTIVE HOLDINGS
Security Country Active weight*
Tencent Holdings Ltd. China 1.6%
China Construction Bank Corp. China 1.6%
SK hynix, Inc. South Korea 1.4%
Wiwynn Corp. Taiwan 1.0%
REC Ltd. India 0.9%
China Hongqiao Group Ltd. China 0.9%
Gold Circuit Electronics Ltd. Taiwan 0.9%
Asia Vital Components Co., Ltd. Taiwan 0.9%
Accton Technology Corp. Taiwan 0.8%
Ping An 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. Data is from the Investment Adviser’s accounting system and will differ from the Fund’s official net asset value for reasons including: differences in the accrual of certain expenses, income, and recognition of cash flows, and fund holidays.

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

SECTOR WEIGHTS
Sector Fund Benchmark
Information Technology 30.6% 28.3%
Financials 19.2% 22.3%
Consumer Discretionary 11.4% 11.7%
Communication Services 10.7% 9.3%
Industrials 9.1% 7.0%
Materials 6.9% 7.1%
Health Care 2.4% 3.1%
Real Estate 2.2% 1.3%
Consumer Staples 2.0% 3.7%
Energy 1.9% 3.9%
Equity Funds 1.0% 0.0%
Utilities 0.9% 2.3%
TOP 10 COUNTRIES
Country Strategy Benchmark
China 28.4% 27.6%
Taiwan 22.0% 20.6%
South Korea 18.2% 13.3%
India 14.6% 15.3%
Brazil 3.0% 4.3%
South Africa 2.8% 3.8%
United Arab Emirates 1.6% 1.4%
Turkey 1.2% 0.4%
Mexico 1.1% 1.9%
Indonesia 1.0% 1.2%
Regional Allocation
  • Emerging Asia 84.8%
  • Emerging Europe, Middle East, Africa 7.1%
  • Emerging Latin America 5.7%
  • North America 0.7%
  • Multi Region Emerging (ETF) 0.0%

Commentary (As of December 31, 2025)

Highlights

  • EM equities delivered positive returns in December, capping off a strong year.
  • Strong earnings growth in the Korean semiconductor sector, corporate governance reforms, and strong demand for goods in sectors with strategic importance such as defense, nuclear, power transformers, and shipbuilding have bolstered Korean stocks in 2025. We believe these tailwinds will persist in 2026 and South Korean equity valuations remain attractive. We were overweight South Korean stocks in the Portfolio as of year-end.
  • EM large cap stock returns posed a headwind for the Portfolio’s performance in 2025 due to the portfolio’s EM small cap allocation. Within EM, we continue to identify, in our view, attractive investment opportunities in small cap companies. Historically, our investment process has uncovered EM small cap stocks with alpha potential.

Portfolio Attribution

The Fund outperformed the Index in December 2025. We use both bottom-up “stock-specific” and top-down factor categories to forecast alpha for the stocks in the Portfolio’s investable universe. Our bottom-up growth, technical (price momentum), valuation, and corporate events factors were positive indicators in December. Competitive strength was a negative indicator during the month. Our top-down country/sector aggregate, currency, and macroeconomic factors were positive indicators.

Over the month, Portfolio holdings in the emerging Asia region contributed to relative performance, due primarily to stock selection in China, India, and Taiwan. In the emerging Europe, Middle East, and Africa (“EMEA”) region, stock selection in South Africa detracted from relative performance. Stock selection in Brazil detracted from relative performance in emerging Latin America. From a sector perspective, information technology, financials, and utilities were the top contributors to relative performance. Consumer discretionary, communication services, and materials detracted from relative performance. The greatest stock-level contributors to relative performance included overweight positions in semiconductor manufacturer, SK hynix, Inc. (South Korea), fabless hardware manufacturer, ADATA Technology Co., Ltd. (Taiwan), and automobile parts vendor, Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd. (South Korea). The largest stock-level detractors from relative performance included overweight positions in toy company, Pop Mart International Group Ltd. (China), and biotechnology company, 3sBio, Inc. (China), as well as an underweight position in integrated circuit manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (Taiwan).

Investment Outlook

The US Federal Reserve cut its target interest rate by 25 basis points in December, lowering the Fed funds rate to 3.5 – 3.75 percent. The Fed also announced quantitative easing measures to maintain supportive financial conditions. After strong performance in 2025, we believe the outlook for EM equities is supported by stable to falling US interest rates. From a country perspective, South Korean equities were notable outperformers in 2025. Strong earnings growth in the Korean semiconductor sector, corporate governance reforms, and strong demand for goods in sectors with strategic importance such as defense, nuclear, power transformers, and shipbuilding have bolstered Korean stocks. We believe these tailwinds will persist in 2026 and South Korean equity valuations remain attractive. We were overweight South Korean stocks in the Portfolio as of year-end.

EM large cap stocks generally outperformed small caps in 2025. Many EM mega cap stocks were supported by significant exposure to the artificial intelligence theme through logic foundry, memory, chip design, and large language model development. EM large cap stock returns posed a headwind for the Portfolio’s performance in 2025 due to the portfolio’s EM small cap allocation. Within EM, we continue to identify, in our view, attractive investment opportunities in small cap companies. Historically, our investment process has uncovered EM small cap stocks with alpha potential. The Portfolio’s allocation to small cap stocks was near the high end of the historical range at year-end.

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 any portfolio holdings and characteristics are subject to change. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Any securities identified and described do not represent all of the securities purchased, sold or recommended for the Fund. Index returns assume reinvestment of dividends and capital gains, and assume no management, custody, transaction or other expenses. The reader should not assume that an investment in any securities identified was or will be profitable. MSCI has not approved, reviewed or produced this report, makes no express or implied warranties or representations and is not liable whatsoever for any data in the report. You may not redistribute the MSCI data or use it as a basis for other indices or investment products.

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