The Legg Mason IF Martin Currie Emerging Markets (EMs) Fund has been added to the Adviser Centre's 'recommended' fund list.
This follows the Adviser Centre's monthly review meeting which took place on the 27 February 2019.
The Adviser Centre organises active funds in to three categories “Recommended” “Established” and “Positive Watch”. The first category consist of funds “worthy of advisers’ attention because, as well as having clearly articulated positive attributes and utility features, they have capacity to grow their assets under management and also feature widely on fund platforms.”
The fund is managed by Kim Catechis, Divya Mathur and Alastair Reynolds from Martin Currie’s office in Edinburgh. It has an Ongoing Charge Figure (OCF) of 1.34 percent and its top holdings consist of Samsung Electronics, Alibaba and Tencent.
Gill Hutchison, research director at the Adviser Centre, said: “This EM equity fund is characterised by high-conviction stock picking. Philosophically, they believe that markets often mis-price economic value creation and that, by emphasising fundamental research and creating long-term forecasts of company profits, they are better-placed to uncover and exploit price inefficiencies. Stewardship considerations are integral to the process, as they hold the firm belief that sustainability factors have a direct impact upon long-term economic value creation.
“The output of the funds process is a reasonably concentrated portfolio of 40-60 stocks, all held in active weights compared to the index. They are comfortable holding large weights in their highest conviction ideas, having assessed up and downside risks. At the same time, they are also careful to ensure that the portfolio does not reflect strong style or factor risks, in order that stock picking remains the primary driver of performance. Naturally, the team’s willingness to express conviction in their stock views means that investors should be prepared for variability in the risk/return outcome compared to the index.”
In February 2019, the Adviser Centre removed the Schroders Tokyo fund from its 'recommended' fund list following the announcement that its manager Andrew Rose manager is set to retire at the end of June 2019.
The researcher removed the fund from its list at this stage only as a precaution to see how the change of management affects the fund’s performance.
The Adviser Centre, launched in 2014, is an online, fund research and investment consultancy service which features analysis and information on actively-managed funds, selected from the whole of the market. It is dedicated to supporting financial professionals in their fund selection work, with a special emphasis on helping with the assessment of fund suitability.
Legg Mason affiliate Martin Currie has $17 billion assets under management.
