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HEAD-TO-HEAD: Barings versus First State

FSA compares two global emerging markets equity products: the Barings Global Emerging Markets Fund and the First State Global Emerging Markets Focus Fund.
by Rupert Walker

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Performance

“The Barings fund is one of the firm’s flagship offerings and is backed by strong performance since its launch in 1992,” said McDermott.

Over the past five years the fund has returned 52.9% to investors, he noted, and “perhaps unsurprisingly, the strongest annual returns (in US dollars) have be achieved in the growth-led markets of 2017 (28.83%) and 2019 (26.15%)”.

In contrast the fund recorded its biggest loss in 2018, falling 13.2%, according to FE Fundinfo.

Turning to the First State fund, McDermott noted that although it is quite new to the Hong Kong and Singapore retail market with an inception date of January 2020, “it has a longer-track record in other parts of the world”.

However, since the start of the year it has slumped 12.95%, with performance a victim to markets “rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

However, performance has recovered during the market bounce over the past three months, he noted.

Nevertheless, the Barings fund has outperformed the First State product since 2017, although with slightly higher annualised volatility of  21.05% compared with the First State product (20.86%), according to FE Fundinfo data.

Discrete annual performance

 

Fund /Sector

 YTD* 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
Barings -0.53% 26.15% -13.21% 28.83% 6.77% 1.66%
First State -12.95% 16.04% -11.78% – – –
Equity – emerging markets -2.28% 21.41% -11.57% 16.21% 11.43% -4.86%
 Source: FE Fundinfo. Annual returns in US dollars. *to 7 August 2020

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