By MARCEL PORCHERON 29/03/2007
The First State Indian Subcontinent Fund invests primarily in the Indian stock market, but also those of Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Vijay Tohani runs the fund from Singapore, despite being a member of Angus Tulloch's Edinburgh-based Asia ex Japan/ Global Emerging Markets (GEMs) Team. Tohani focuses primarily on quality companies where his objective is long term capital growth, although he is also concerned with capital preservation.
In line with First State's other Asia Pacific funds, Tohani undertakes fundamental research on his defined universe of stocks. In this case he maintains a watch list of about 200 companies which he meets every year. This fundamental research narrows the list to about 45 stocks which make up the portfolio and Tohani expects to retain this level of concentration going forward. Stock ideas are weighted according to the quality of the company, the liquidity of its stock and its valuation. New ideas will only enter the portfolio if they are attractively priced, whilst price review targets are set for stocks held. Overall, Tohani adopts a pragmatic approach to valuation and will not automatically sell a stock if it breaches a review target. He believes that one of the strengths of First State's Asia/ GEMs desk is the cross border analysis of companies that they undertake and for this purpose there are regular formal and informal team discussions each week.
Investors should be aware that, due to the currently high relative valuation of the Indian market and the illiquid nature of some underlying stocks in the portfolio, this is only suitable for high risk investors or those with a suitably long term investment horizon. As assets under management grow the onshore fund (A) will likely retain its weighting to smaller companies although the offshore fund (I) will move up the market cap scale.
Awarded 3 stars