Efficient investment process and discipline seen as the key to Aberdeen’s success despite times of crisis
Aberdeen has enjoyed another year of success thanks to its strong commitments to offer new investment choices and consistent performance for investors. Having received Best Asset Management Awards in both the Open-ended Equity Fund and Open-ended Flexible Fund categories at the SET AWARDS held at the Stock Exchange of Thailand earlier this year, the effectiveness of Aberdeen’s unique and disciplined investment process has clearly been proven.
Aberdeen Asset Management’s Deputy CEO Robert Penaloza explained “According to our investment process, our fund managers make regular visits to companies with solid long-term prospects to find the best investment ideas. Through company visits, notes are written every time with the help of our colleagues from other regional offices to analyse and identify quality companies to invest. Company revisits will be made at semi-annual intervals to reaffirm that we have picked the right companies with strong fundamentals and reasonable valuations. These investment process and strategies are basically applied to the management of funds globally across the Aberdeen Group.” Following last year’s solid success in the initial public offering (IPO) of Aberdeen Asia Pacific Equity Open-Ended Fund, the firm then launched another two open-ended equity foreign investment funds (FIFs) this year. The Aberdeen World Opportunities Fund with the policy to invest in potential companies around the globe through the Aberdeen Global -World Equity Fund attracted an overwhelming interest among investors in the market. It was fully subscribed in just four days after the IPO. Over the last three years, Aberdeen Global-World Equity Fund, the master fund of Thai-registered Aberdeen World Opportunities Fund generated a generous return of 78.70%*. Aberdeen’s latest offering, the Aberdeen European Growth Fund with the policy to invest in blue-chip companies in Europe through the Aberdeen Global–European Equity Fund also received an overwhelming response from investors with over 1.2 billion Baht raised from its IPO. Over the last three years, Aberdeen Global-European Equity Fund, the master fund of Thai-registered Aberdeen European Growth Fund delivered a handsome return of 69.60%**. The Securities and Exchange Commission again approved the firm additional USD allocation, making its FIFs secure the largest pie of the allocation from the SEC. The total asset size of its FIFs now exceeds 4.8 billion Baht.*** “The success in the IPO of our three FIFs has triggered a wave of investment inflows into equity foreign investment funds among investors, giving them the opportunity to diversify their investments, improve returns and cash in on growth of other economies in the region,” he said. Furthermore, in early September this year, Aberdeen was appointed by the Government Pension Fund (GPF) to manage an equity portion of its fund. “The appointment reflects a great confidence of the government in our company. This also opens up the room for our private fund business as a number of companies have later approached us to manage a pool of their funds. Negotiations of several deals are now under way” he added. The recent market turbulence is another proof that Aberdeen’s unique and disciplined investment strategies still work and are well received by investors. Its funds delivered a stellar performance despite the ‘Black Tuesday’ where the market suffered the largest single-day drop of more than 100 points in reaction to the central bank’s capital control announcement. In contrast, Aberdeen had witnessed a massive buying force of its equity funds. It received attractive inflows of up to 100 million baht into its long-term equity fund (LTF) on the same day. “Net asset value (NAV) of Aberdeen’s Long-Term Equity Fund dropped only 10.84%**** against a steep14.84% dive of the SET Index on December 19, making our LTF fund outperforming the market on the ‘Black Tuesday.” Robert concluded. Notes to Editor: Aberdeen Asset Management is part of Aberdeen Group which manages US$141 billion globally as of 31 October 2006. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, the group has 89 fund managers and 25 offices around the world. * Source: Lipper, total return, NAV, net of annual charges, gross income reinvested
** Source: Lipper, total return, NAV, net of annual charges, gross income reinvested
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