Bestinvest says
Aberdeen Asian Equities team aims to invest in quality companies and undertake detailed proprietary company research. They are a well resourced and experienced team, with a regional presence, which gives us confidence in their strength in depth. The team has grown over the years and has amassed considerable expertise in Asian stocks. Japan has been a structural underweight for some time. Historically this fund has proven to be a less risky way to access what has been a volatile market. 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.
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.