Schroders has made its quantitative global emerging markets equities fund available to retail investors in the UK, saying there is a lack of viable
options in its home market for this kind of product.
The Schroder ISF QEP Global Emerging Markets Fund, managed by the firm’s quantitative equities products team, will follow the same investment strategy as the existing Luxembourg fund, which has posted an 11.6% return since it was launched in March 2012.
The original fund has its largest asset allocation of 17.3% in information technology, followed by 14.7% in consumer discretionary. Geographically, China dominates at 18.6%, with Brazil second at 12.8%.
Justin Abercrombie, who joined Schroders in 1996, leads the onshore version of the $495.8 million (€370.9 million) fund. The quant team will analyse investment opportunities in over 4,000 companies across emerging markets.
Abercrombie says: “We have been investing in both developed and emerging market companies for over a decade and have a proven track record of successfully generating value in these markets.
“Since launching the stand-alone emerging markets strategy in early 2012, we have attracted new client assets of over £1.7billion (€2.1 billion). We feel it is a natural step to extend this proposition to the onshore UK market.”
Stock selection will be based on two fundamental return drivers looking at company valuations and business quality. A country risk framework will also be used to highlight any issues that may be relevant to the countries chosen for investment.
Robin Stoakley, managing director, UK intermediary, says: “We believe there is a lack of viable options for UK investors in this area and have launched an onshore version of the fund specifically to meet the needs of the UK advisory market.”
Schroders is a global asset management company with £271.5 billion under management as of June 30, 2014.
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