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*
€20.02
Inception
February 10, 2016
ISIN
IE00BWT3P209
Benchmark
MSCIEmergingMarketsinUSD
Minimum investment
€1,000,000
Total expense ratio
1.24%
*As of March 05, 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

QTD YTD 1 year3 years Since inception
Fund -0.7%-0.7%13.3%6.4%8.1%
MSCI Emerging Markets in EUR 1.9%1.9%15.1%3.5%8.4%
QTD YTD 1 year3 years Since inception
Fund -0.7%-0.7%13.3%6.4%8.1%
MSCI Emerging Markets in EUR 1.9%1.9%15.1%3.5%8.4%
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%
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 January 31, 2025)

Benchmark:
Asset Allocation
Fund
Stocks 98.3%
Cash 1.7%
Fund Characteristics
Fund Benchmark
Holdings 186 1251
Weighted avg. market cap (US $MM) $126,667 $136,623
NTM price/earnings 8.1 11.5
Price/book value 1.3 1.8
NTM EPS revision (wtd. avg.) 5.48 -1.5
Net assets $7,001,415.64 -
TOP 10 ACTIVE HOLDINGS
Security Country Active weight*
China Construction Bank Corp. China 2.0%
REC Ltd. India 1.5%
Kia Corp. South Korea 1.4%
Tencent Holdings Ltd. China 1.4%
MediaTek, Inc. Taiwan 1.2%
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. Taiwan 1.2%
Ping An China 1.2%
Cosco Shipping Holdings Co China 1.0%
EVA Airways Corp. Taiwan 0.9%
Shriram Finance Ltd. India 0.9%

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
Information Technology 23.6% 24.6%
Financials 21.2% 23.8%
Consumer Discretionary 15.4% 13.1%
Industrials 10.9% 6.5%
Communication Services 10.6% 9.3%
Health Care 4.9% 3.4%
Materials 4.4% 5.8%
Energy 2.4% 4.6%
Consumer Staples 1.8% 4.7%
Utilities 1.7% 2.6%
Real Estate 1.3% 1.6%
TOP 10 COUNTRIES
Country Strategy Benchmark
China 29.9% 27.5%
Taiwan 22.7% 20.0%
India 16.0% 18.4%
South Korea 14.3% 9.4%
Brazil 3.3% 4.5%
Saudi Arabia 2.0% 4.2%
Turkey 1.7% 0.7%
Indonesia 1.5% 1.4%
United Arab Emirates 1.3% 1.4%
Malaysia 1.0% 1.4%
Regional Allocation
  • Emerging Asia 86.5%
  • Emerging Europe, Middle East, Africa 6.9%
  • Emerging Latin America 4.2%
  • Pacific 0.7%

Commentary (As of December 31, 2024)

Highlights

  • EM equities lagged most developed markets in January as uncertainty surrounding the Trump Administration’s tariff policies weighed on the asset class.
  • In South Korea, the country’s parliament impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol in December after he attempted to impose martial law. Korea’s parliament then impeached his replacement, Han Duck-soo, two weeks later, replacing him with finance minister Choi Sang-mok as acting president. Despite these near-term political challenges, we remain overweight South Korean stocks in the Portfolio, due in part to compelling valuations. We believe the country’s Value Up initiative will continue as it is supported by both leading political parties in the country.
  • In China, authorities have continued to discuss supporting the country’s economy and markets. The communication from the December politburo meeting indicated moderately accommodative monetary policy and emphasized the need to stabilize China’s property market. At its Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC), authorities pledged to increase the budget deficit, issue more debt, and loosen monetary policy to support the economy. We are modestly overweight Chinese stocks in the Portfolio, due in part to attractive valuations.

Portfolio Attribution

The Fund underperformed the Index in January 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 competitive strength, technical (price momentum), valuation, and growth factors were negative indicators in January. Corporate events was neutral during the month. Our top-down macroeconomic factor was a negative indicator while country/sector aggregate and currency were positive.

Quarterly Investment Outlook

In the US, Donald Trump won the presidential election on a platform of higher tariffs and tighter immigration policies and the implications for EM assets are nuanced. Higher tariffs should be negative for EM as it is an export-oriented asset class. However, the incoming Trump administration’s policies may cause higher structural inflation and greater US fiscal deficits, leading to a weaker US dollar in the medium to long-term, which could bolster EM assets. In South Korea, the country’s parliament impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol in December after he attempted to impose martial law. Korea’s parliament then impeached his replacement, Han Duck-soo, two weeks later, replacing him with finance minister Choi Sang-mok as acting president. Despite these near-term political challenges, we remain overweight South Korean stocks in the Portfolio, due in part to compelling valuations. We believe the country’s Value Up initiative will continue as it is supported by both leading political parties in the country. In China, authorities have continued to discuss supporting the country’s economy and markets. The communication from the December politburo meeting indicated moderately accommodative monetary policy and emphasized the need to stabilize China’s property market. At its Central Economic Work Conference (CEWC), authorities pledged to increase the budget deficit, issue more debt, and loosen monetary policy to support the economy. We are modestly overweight Chinese stocks in the Portfolio, due in part to attractive valuations.

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: