Fidelity Greater China continues to be an attractive equity offering in our opinion. We maintain the fund’s Morningstar Analyst Rating of Bronze.
Portfolio manager Raymond Ma has 17 years of investment experience and has managed the fund since 31 July 2012. He started his portfolio management career with Fidelity China Consumer in February 2011, a thematic fund he has delivered stellar returns on thanks to his expertise in the IT and consumer sectors.
He has since become more well-rounded across different sectors and has consistently demonstrated a true passion for investing. He is supported by a team of 14 Greater China analysts who sport eight years of investment experience and four years with the firm on average.
Ma manages his portfolio in a benchmark-aware and diversified manner, with a preference for growth stocks. As part of his search for companies with earnings growth and cash flow generation, he has the flexibility to invest in turn-around and/or underappreciated opportunities that may not traditionally be associated with having growth characteristics.
For example, Ma had increased the fund’s energy overweighting over the past year, which has benefited from the oil price rebound. Conversely, He has trimmed the fund’s position in Internet giant Tencent given it has been slow in centralising its data and faced regulatory headwinds in its gaming business.
While Ma has used this process to good effect, we note that its implementation is heavily reliant on him. The fund has delivered strong returns under Ma’s management. Between 1 Aug 2012 and 31 Oct 2018, the fund returned 10.36% per year, beating the MSCI Golden Dragon Index by 301 basis points and ranking in the sixth percentile among peers. This outperformance has been consistent, with the fund placed in the top two quintiles among peers every calendar year since Ma took over.
The fund charges reasonable fees. Overall, we believe Ma is a capable manager supported by a sizable analyst team, and he has delivered strong returns for investors in this fund with his growth-tilted investment process.