Head To Head

HEAD-TO-HEAD: First State versus Invesco

FSA compares two mixed asset products: the First State Bridge Fund and the Invesco Asia Balanced Fund.

by Francis Nikolai Acosta 22 March 20198 August 2022

12 3 4 5 6

Jan Nel, Morningstar

Introduction

Mixed-asset funds have become popular among investors globally, according to Jan Nel, Hong Kong-based analyst for manager research at Morningstar.

“Some have leeway to decrease and increase the asset allocation in equity and fixed income. They should give you some downside protection when equities get too expensive, but they should give you an upside as well when stocks rally,” he said.

Multi-asset funds were among the most searched-for products by Asia’s private banks and wealth managers in March, according to data provided by Fund Info.

In Hong Kong, it has also become the most successful fund category, accounting for 36% of gross sales in 2018, according to data from the HKIFA.

In Singapore, mixed-asset funds had the highest net inflows of all asset classes – S$2.79 ($2.06bn) during the first nine months of 2018 – as investors looked for income, according to a Cerulli report.

Against this backdrop, Morningstar’s Nel compares two Asia multi-asset funds: the First State Bridge Fund and the Invesco Asia Balanced Fund.

	First State	Invesco
Size	S$1.74bn ($1.29bn)	$435m
Inception	July 2003	Sept 2003
Manager	Martin Lau, Nigel Foo	Ken Hu, Lorraine Kuo
Three-year cumulative return*	23.87%	9.30%
Three-year annualised return**	7.13%	2.69%
Three-year annualised alpha**	2.34%	0.34%
Three-year annualised volatility**	7.83	6.69
Morningstar analyst rating	Silver	Neutral
Morningstar star rating	*****	****
FE Crown fund rating	*****	**
OCF	1.43%	1.66%

Source: FE, Morningstar

*18 March 2016 – 20 March 2019

**19 March 2016 – 15 March 2019

12 3 4 5 6

Promoted Content

FSA SPY

The FSA Spy market buzz – 22 February 2025

GMO excludes China; Diversity is rushing to the exit; What is a boutique? Pictet is thinking about families; Sands Capital likes software; JP Morgan’s tech spend; Defense VCs spending and much more.