Simon Dorricott: Welcome to the Morningstar Manager Check-up, covering the latest ratings updates from our fund research team. We have an emerging markets focus this week, and start with the Henderson China Opportunities fund that has been managed by Charlie Awdry since 2006. Awdry clearly has a high level of experience in this market, and puts this to good use in an investment process that combines top down and bottom-up inputs.
In contrast to many managers Awdry has a relatively short investment horizon and high turnover, however his performance track record demonstrates his ability to overcome these transaction costs and produce alpha for investors. Awdry is London-based but has support from a team on the ground in Hong Kong, and particularly from assistant manager May Ling Wee who provides stock level research. The fund continues to hold a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Bronze.
Next we move to India and the Jupiter India fund managed by Avanish Vazirani. He is a highly experienced manager in this market, and despite now being part of the emerging markets team at Jupiter, has been able to retain a focus solely on the Indian market and this product. The manager looks to identify under-researched stocks, with strong growth prospects that have not been fully valued by the market.
There is also an emphasis on quality in terms of competitive positioning and corporate governance. This approach tends to lead him down the market-cap scale and that can lead to some variability in relative performance over shorter time periods. Longer term performance has however been strong, and this coupled with the consistent approach helps support the analyst rating of Bronze.
And finally, we move to a global fund and a closed-ended vehicle, the JPMorgan Emerging Markets Investment Trust (JMG). This trust is managed by Austin Forey who has been at the helm since 1994, and has produced strong returns over a variety of market conditions. The portfolio has a quality growth focus and is built from the bottom-up, effectively using the extensive analyst resources of the group.
Although Forey doesn’t make use of gearing, he does take advantage of the closed-ended structure through adopting a less benchmark-aware approach and investing in some less-liquid situations than is the case for the open-ended versions of this strategy. The trust retains its Analyst rating of Silver.
