Posted inHead To Head

HEAD-TO-HEAD: First State vs Schroders

FSA compares two Asia-Pacific dividend-focused funds: the First State Asian Equity Plus Fund and the Schroder ISF Asian Equity Yield Fund.
by Fund Selector Asia
Performance

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The First State fund has delivered exceptional returns tracing back to August 2003 when the fund was incepted.

“Between 1 Aug 2003 and 30 Nov 2016, the fund gained 13.42% per year, beating the MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan Index by 365 basis points and ranking in the first percentile among peers,” Share said.

Its 3-year performance almost doubled the Schroders fund and tripled the benchmark, as shown in the above chart, by returning 18.18%.

However, the recent performance, the one-year return as of September-end (13.36%) was lagging the index by 471 basis points, mainly due to the underweight of Samsung Electronics, she noted. “Investors should note that Lau invests with a long-term mindset, and be prepared to ride out periods of short-term relative under-performance.”

Share said both funds offer good downside protection and low volatility.

The three-year downside capture ratio, which measures how much the fund will fall when the benchmark drops 100%, is 69.7% for First State fund and 75.7% for Schroders one. Category average of Morningstar’s Asia Pacific ex-Japan equity basket is 91%.

Volatility of the First State and Schroders fund over the three years, in terms of standard deviation, is 12.43 and 12.26 respectively, versus 14.56 of Morningstar’s Asia Pacific ex-Japan equity category, as well as 15.03 of the benchmark.

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