Bestinvest says
Aberdeen Asian Equities team aims to invest in quality companies and undertake detailed proprietary company research. Bestinvest have a met almost all of the team members which gives us confidence in their strength and depth. The team has grown over the years and has amassed considerable expertise in Asian stocks. Historically this fund has outperformed in falling markets, but lagged when cyclical companies have outperformed. Investors should note that there will be an overlap in holdings with Aberdeen’s Global Emerging Markets funds so it may be inadvisable to hold both for diversification purposes. The open-ended Aberdeen Asia Pacific fund is similar to the London-listed closed-ended investment trusts Aberdeen New Dawn (LSE:ABD) and Edinburgh Dragon (LSE:EFM) run by the same managers.
Research is predominantly in house, gathered since 1985 through first hand manager meetings or from other Aberdeen groups investing within this specialist area. The team invest for the long term in companies that have strong balance sheets, which are also growing their profits and returning cash to investors. Initially a qualitative screen is used to reduce the investable universe before rigorous bottom up analysis identifies individual stock ideas. This bottom up approach is the main driver of country and sector weightings.
The fund structure is not benchmark driven and a focus on relative value and absolute risk can lead to periods of underperformance, particularly in momentum type markets.