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*
£8.74
Inception
29 May 2026
ISIN
IE00BMZ7RF39
Benchmark
MSCI Emerging Markets
Minimum investment
$1,000,000
Total expense ratio
0.88%
*As of 29 July 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 Since inception
Fund (net) 0.0%0.0%-1.3%
MSCI Emerging Markets in GBP 0.0%0.0%0.2%
Table Header QTD YTD Since inception
Fund (net) 0.0%0.0%-1.3%
MSCI Emerging Markets in GBP 0.0%0.0%0.2%

Portfolio (as of 30 June 2026)

Benchmark: MSCI Emerging Markets in GBP
Asset Allocation
Table Header Fund
Stocks 95.3%
Cash 4.7%
Fund Characteristics
Table Header Fund Benchmark
Holdings 171 1178
Weighted avg. market cap (US $MM) $407,485 $478,682
NTM price/earnings 9.5 11.7
Price/book value 2.2 2.6
NTM EPS revision (wtd. avg.) 34.45 23.06
Net assets £987.00 -
TOP 10 ACTIVE HOLDINGS
Security Country Active weight*
China Construction Bank Corp. China 1.8%
SK hynix, Inc. South Korea 1.4%
Accton Technology Corp. Taiwan 1.2%
Asia Vital Components Co., Ltd. Taiwan 1.1%
Gold Circuit Electronics Ltd. Taiwan 1.1%
Elite Material Co., Ltd. Taiwan 0.8%
Delta Electronics, Inc. Taiwan 0.8%
Wiwynn Corp. Taiwan 0.7%
Credicorp Ltd. Peru 0.7%
Wuxi Apptec Co China 0.7%

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 45.4% 45.3%
Financials 12.2% 18.4%
Industrials 8.0% 6.7%
Materials 7.1% 5.4%
Consumer Discretionary 5.3% 7.2%
Energy 4.5% 3.1%
Communication Services 4.4% 6.0%
Equity Funds 4.3% 0.0%
Health Care 2.3% 2.4%
Real Estate 1.1% 1.0%
Consumer Staples 0.6% 2.6%
Utilities 0.2% 1.9%
TOP 10 COUNTRIES
Country Strategy Benchmark
Taiwan 29.5% 27.3%
South Korea 27.1% 23.7%
China 18.2% 19.0%
India 8.3% 11.1%
Brazil 1.9% 3.8%
South Africa 1.6% 2.9%
Thailand 1.1% 1.0%
Saudi Arabia 1.1% 2.4%
Mexico 1.0% 1.7%
Turkey 0.9% 0.4%
Regional Allocation
  • Emerging Asia 85.4%
  • Emerging Europe, Middle East, Africa 5.1%
  • Emerging Latin America 4.5%
  • North America 0.3%

Commentary (As of 30 June 2026)

Highlights

  • Despite emerging markets (“EM”) equities posting modestly negative returns in June, the asset class delivered strong returns in the second quarter.
  • Continued AI capital expenditure was a critical driver of strong EM performance during the second quarter and should remain an important factor going forward. With 2027 AI capital expenditure estimates near $1 trillion, investors will scrutinize the efficacy and sustainability of these levels of investment.
  • While geopolitical tensions—including ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as strategic competition between the US and China—remain important factors affecting the global economy, oil prices have declined significantly. Falling oil prices provide a tailwind for emerging markets as net oil-importing countries comprise the largest portion of the EM equity market.

Portfolio Attribution

The Fund underperformed the Index in June 2026. 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 valuation factor was a negative indicator in June. Growth, technical (price momentum), corporate events, and competitive strength were positive indicators during the month. Our top-down macroeconomic, currency, and country/sector aggregate factors were negative indicators during the month.

Over the month, stock selection in Taiwan and India detracted from relative performance in the emerging Asia region. In the emerging Europe, Middle East, and Africa ("EMEA") region, stock selection in South Africa detracted from relative performance. Stock selection in Peru contributed to relative performance in emerging Latin America. From a sector perspective, information technology, financials, and industrials detracted from relative performance. Consumer discretionary, health care, and communication services contributed to relative performance. The largest stock-level detractors from relative performance included overweight positions in electronic components manufacturer, LG Innotek Co., Ltd. (South Korea), and electronics manufacturing company, Delta Electronics, Inc. (Taiwan), as well as an underweight position in technology-oriented investment company, SK Square Co. Ltd. (South Korea). The greatest stock-level contributors to relative performance included an overweight position in semiconductor company, SK hynix, Inc. (South Korea), and underweight positions in internet commerce company, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. ADR (China), and automaker, Hyundai Motor Co., Ltd. (South Korea).

Investment Outlook

Continued AI capital expenditure was a critical driver of strong EM performance during the second quarter and should remain an important factor going forward. With 2027 AI capital expenditure estimates near $1 trillion, investors will scrutinize the efficacy and sustainability of these levels of investment. Concerns about the spending levels have contributed to volatility in EM. Furthermore, leverage in the South Korean market, whether through margin lending or levered Exchange-Traded Funds, has exacerbated volatility. We remain overweight South Korean and Taiwanese stocks in the Portfolio as we believe valuations are reasonable and sentiment is positive, but we are closely monitoring the risks associated with massive AI capital expenditures.

While geopolitical tensions—including ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as strategic competition between the US and China—remain important factors affecting the global economy, oil prices have declined significantly. Falling oil prices provide a tailwind for emerging markets as net oil-importing countries comprise the largest portion of the EM equity market. In the EMEA region, the Portfolio is overweight Turkish stocks due in part to bottom-up and top-down considerations. In late May, a Turkish court issued a judgment that effectively ousted the reformist leader of the main opposition party, the CHP, and reinstated his divisive predecessor, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. This move, along with others in recent years, effectively weakens the opposition party. Despite these developments, we maintain our overweight to Turkey as the central bank, in our view, continues to be disciplined, keeping short term rates comfortably above expected inflation.

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

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