Fidelity Emerging manager welcomes investors
Fidleity Emerging has published this introductory letter.
Dear Shareholders and potential investors,
Following the EGM held on Friday, Chris Tennant (Co-Portfolio Manager) and I, are delighted to have been asked to take over the management of the newly named Fidelity Emerging Markets Limited (“FEML”). We would like to thank you for the faith that you, as shareholders, and the Board have put in us.
Markets are never static and I’m sure you will be keen to understand our plans moving forward.
The team at Fidelity has been working with the outgoing managers, custodian and administrators over the past few weeks to ensure an orderly transfer of the assets to our management. As a result, we are well placed to pick up the reins immediately.
Clearly recent weeks have seen moments of market turbulence – in part caused by China anti-trust laws and regulation – that we anticipated in our quarterly update, sent to investors in our existing mandates in July. More recently, beleaguered property developer, China Evergrande has sent ripples across the market. Whilst these events can be unsettling, as an experienced emerging markets team, it is our role to navigate choppy waters, aided by insights from investment team colleagues based in mainland China and throughout the Asia region.
Importantly, from this global volatility new opportunities arise. We are confident that we will provide you with a highly resilient portfolio with an abundance of quality characteristics such as high returns, prudent balance sheets and valuation multiples with scope to deliver attractive total shareholder returns as we look ahead.
Moving forward, we will be sure to share updates on our thinking and the positioning of the Company on a regular basis with you.
Our thoughts now turn to the future and to realigning the portfolio, at the same time as preparing to liquidate positions to fulfil redemptions as part of the tender offer.
At the heart of our strategy is a belief that we can deliver outsized returns in Emerging Markets through stock selection, driven by fundamental views. We combine skill, resource and discipline with the aim of generating enhanced risk-adjusted returns. The Company’s closed-end structure means we will be able to invest in smaller companies, below $5billion (US) market cap, as well private companies before they list on the stock market.
As set out in the circular and our proposals to the Board and shareholders, we use enhanced investment powers through the addition of both long and short derivatives (where we seek a return from underlying stocks which we expect to fall in value). We do this to increase our exposure to those companies where we have a high conviction investment view (‘alpha’) while carefully managing our risk exposure to the market overall (‘beta’). These positions are actively monitored and adjusted daily within strict limits.
By design, our overall exposure to the market is kept relatively conservative – and net gearing is unlikely to exceed the broad index by more than a few percent. The portfolio construction however allows us to take geared bets in individual positions offsetting these with shorts as described above. This is a flexible and very cost-efficient way of managing these exposures. However, it should be noted that increased and more complicated use of derivatives could result in situations where performance may rise or fall more than it would have done otherwise.
Of course, we want to ensure that as we realign the portfolio, we focus on achieving the best value for shareholders and we will therefore not rush where patience may be rewarded. Completing the changes to the portfolio will therefore take several weeks, and we will update shareholders again when this process is largely complete.
More information about our approach and strategy can be found at the Company’s new website www.fidelity.co.uk/emergingmarkets which will be frequently updated and where the latest share price, discount and portfolio information may be found.
Once again – I would like to thank you all for the faith that you have put in us. We very much look forward to a long and prosperous future together.
Nick Price – Portfolio Manager