Manager review
Dennis Lai has been managing the fund since he joined the firm in June 2003. Lai previously led Asian small and mid-cap research for Cazenove Asia, according to Ng.
Cho-Yu Kooi has been managing the JO Hambro fund since its inception in September 2011.
Cho-Yu has 20 years of industry experience and has long experience managing a small-cap strategy in Asia, Ng said.
She previously worked for Silver Metis Capital Management, Lloyd George Management, UBS and DBS Asset Management.
Fees
The Allianz fund levies 3.25% annual management fees, much higher than the JO Hambro fund’s 1.5% charge on share class B and the 0.9% on share class A.
Similarly, the total expense ratio (TER) for the Allianz fund is 3.25% for the year ended 30 September 2015. It is more than the 2% TER for the JO Hambro fund (for the year ended 31 December 2014).
“Fees and charges of the Allianz fund are high. On the other hand, the JO Hambro fund levies a 15% performance fee for excess return relative to the benchmark,” Ng pointed out.
Conclusion
The Allianz fund gets a 3 Crown rating while the JO Hambro fund gets 5 Crowns. The FE Crown Rating ranks funds based on alpha, consistency and volatility.
As mentioned earlier, a major difference between the two products is that the Allianz fund has a bias toward higher market capitalisation stocks within the small- and mid-cap space and the JO Hambro vehicle is tilted in favor of small-cap stocks.
“Investors who wish to have small company exposure could go for the JO Hambro fund due to its small-cap focus. Also, the fund manager has been delivering strong risk-adjusted returns consistently throughout her tenure,” said Ng.
“On the other hand, investors who wish to have higher China and Hong Kong exposure could consider the Allianz fund, as it is overweight those two markets,” he concluded.
