HEAD-TO-HEAD: First State versus Templeton

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Management review

The First State fund is co-managed by Martin Lau, who is also a managing partner of First State Stewart Asia, and Richard Jones, director of First State Stewart Asia, according to data from FE.

Lau has been managing the fund since 2003 and has at least 20 years of experience managing Asia-Pacific and Greater China portfolios, according to FE. Jones became co-manager of the fund in 2012 and has at least 29 years of experience in company research and portfolio management of Asian securities.

In terms of analyst support, Lau manages a team of 21 investment professionals that focus on Asian equities, according to information from Morningstar.

Poole likes the experience of the First State managers and their team support.

“They have Lau [who has been managing the fund for 16 years] and we are familiar with the other funds of First State as well. There is also a real strong team culture and a good alignment of the team in terms of conversations and outcomes, which is really important.”

Meanwhile, the Templeton fund is co-managed by Eric Mok and Sukumar Rajah, according to data from FE.

Mok has been co-manager since 2017, while Rajah, who has at least 20 years of investment experience, became the lead manager in 2018, according to Morningstar. He replaced Allan Lam, who left in 2018 after managing the fund for 19 years.

Although Poole took note of the management change, he said that Rajah is a veteran manager at the firm.

“Our take on both of the new fund managers is that there can be real opportunity because they can introduce fresh ideas. They come with fresh ways of implementing philosophies. That has been our general experience with new management,” Poole said.

Poole added that both co-managers are improving the way they communicate ideas to analysts. “There’s strong improvement, and that has been reflected in the fund’s performance the last few months,” he said.

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