HEAD-TO-HEAD: Blackrock vs First State

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Manager Review

Both funds are managed under a leadership of veteran managers.

Blackrock’s Swan, who took over as the lead manager for the fund in 2011, has 24 years of investment experience.

Apart from his portfolio management role, he is also head of Asian equities for the fundamental equity division within the alpha strategies group.

Prior to joining Blackrock, he spent 17 years at JP Morgan Asset Management managing the Asia One fund.=

For this fund, Swan works closely with the firm’s risk and quantitative analysis group and fellow analysts, according to Daniels.

As mentioned earlier, the Blackrock strategy has a heavy reliance on Swan. He works closely with North Asia team, which comprises around 30 analysts, half of whom work on sector research.

Turning to the First State fund, Richard Jones and Alistair Thompson are named as co-managers. The duo has worked together on the team since 2014.

Jones is the lead manager for this fund as well as other Asian equities mandates within the firm. Joining First State in 2010, he brings in around 30 years of experience in both the buy- and sell-sides. Co-manager Thompson, with similar experience, has been with the firm since 2003, according to Morningstar.

The First State managers are supported by a 20-member investment team across Hong Kong, Singapore and Edinburgh.

Jones and Swan delivered a consistent outperformance in their funds versus their respective fund manager peers over the past five years, FE data showed.

Source: FE. In US dollars. Performance data collected from UK FCA-recognised funds.

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