Manager review
The Matthews Asia fund is co-managed by Yu Zhang and Sherwood Zhang, who are based in the US. They frequently travel to Asia to meet the management of their portfolio companies and to explore investment ideas, Ng said.
For Robeco, Victoria Mio is the manager of the fund who began her role in 2007. She constructs the portfolio by identifying investment themes and trends via macro analysis, and selects stocks with high return potential that fit into the identified growth themes and trends.
Fees
The latest the ongoing charges (OCF) of the Matthews Asia fund is 2%, higher than that of the Robeco fund (1.68%). The OCFs of the two funds are in line with their market peers, Ng said.
“While the small AUM of the Matthews Asia fund could be a key reason, I do not have a significant concern about the fees of the two funds in terms of fund selection,” he added.
Conclusion
The Matthews Asia China fund is a relatively new fund with small assets under management for the time being, but the team has been running a similar strategy in a US-domiciled version for eight years and it has much higher AUM, Ng said.
“The strategy has been proven to work well, especially in a down market, and it also provides a regular income stream for investors. The fund is more suitable for less aggressive investors, and that should serve well to diversify risk among a Chinese equity portfolio.”
On the other hand, investors with higher risk appetite should consider Robeco, as the fund has a strong focus on new economy sectors, he said.
“The [Robeco] holdings present stronger long-term growth prospects as China transitions to a more consumer- and service-driven economy,” Ng said.
