Advance Developing Markets has released its interim results covering the six months to the end of April 2015. Over that period the total return on net assets was 6.9% and the return to shareholders 6.6% while the return on the MSCI Emerging Markets Index was 8.3%.
The manager’s report says that being underweight China at a time when that market was performing well hindered performance relative to the benchmark as did their choice of funds in Brazil, Russia, regional Asian funds and Africa. Funds exposed to India, Korea and Thailand generally did well.
The managers took a new position in an Indian fund managed by a team at Goldman Sachs and also bought a new holding in Genesis Emerging Markets at a time when it was trading on a 13% discount. They have also bought a small position in JPMorgan Asian as they believe the recent management and investment process changes are leading to an improved performance for that fund.
ADMF : Advance Developing held back by China underweight