Matthews Asia unveils three emerging market funds

Matthews Asia has launched a suite of three emerging market UCITS funds, aiming to give investors the "power of choice" over their EM exposure.

The Matthews Emerging Markets Equity fund, Matthews Emerging Markets ex China Equity fund and Matthews Emerging Markets Discovery fund all mirror strategies available to US investors and are classified as Article 8.

The firm's EM equity fund is run by lead managers John Paul Lech and Alex Zarechnak, with support from co-managers Andrew Mattock and Peeyush Mittal.

Investing in between 30 and 70 companies, the fund pursues firms with higher growth metrics and higher quality metrics using a fundamental, bottom-up investment approach. It also focuses on firms that serve the growing needs of domestic consumers within their markets.

Meanwhile, the EM equity ex China fund uses a similar strategy as the larger EM equity fund with the same lead managers, with additional support from co-manager Peeyush Mittal.

Matthews Asia said the fund allowed investors to have the ability to separate China from their core emerging markets allocation, either to avoid exposure or have more control using a dedicated China strategy.

Finally, the EM discovery fund selects between 40 and 80 small companies with more innovative and entrepreneurial business models across emerging markets, investing early in their lifecycle and holding them to capitalise on structural growth trends.

The fund is lead managed by Vivek Tanneeru with support from co-managers Jeremy Sutch and Alex Zarechnak.

The expected total expense ratio on the discovery fund is 1.15%, while the expected TER is 0.9% on the other two funds.

Cooper Abbott, CEO of Matthews Asia, said: "In our discussions with institutions and wealth managers, a growing number are looking to build customized exposures to Emerging Markets and have greater control over a core allocation.

"Matthews' launch of these Emerging Market funds gives the power of choice to sophisticated investors, allowing us to deepen partnerships with clients in Europe and Asia and for them to leverage our firm's capabilities to construct highly distinct, actively managed portfolios."