Martin Currie Pacific has published its results for the thirteen months that ended on 31 March 2014. The Company has changed its year end from end February to end March hence the thirteen month period. Over the period the total return on net assets was -10.7% – an underperformance of the MSCI All Countries Asia Pacific (Japan fixed at 25%) index which returned -5.0%. The share price return was -8.8%. The Chairman’s statement says that this underperformance has persisted since the period end. The proposed cure for this is a change in the fund’s remit.
The dividend has been increased from 6.5p to 7.5p.
The manager, Andrew Graham (pictured), attributes underperformance relative to the benchmark to overweighting Thailand and underweighting Japan, not holding Chinese internet stock, Tencent, and holdings in a few resource stocks – Newcrest and Worley Parsons in Australia and CNOOC, the Chinese oil company.