Many of the funds that are closing are the top-performers – their swollen size indicative of their inherent popularity – increasing the difficulty for investors.
One way to find other options is to look at what the fund-of-fund managers are buying.
Investors can either buy those, or the funds of funds themselves.
Many funds of funds hold the First State products that are soft-closing to new investors, but many other portfolios are also popular among the professionals.
Prusik Asian Equity Income
David Coombs, head of multi-manager at Rathbones, rates the $720m Prusik Asian Equity Income fund.
The fund is domiciled in Ireland and invests heavily in China, with 42.8 per cent in either the mainland or Hong Kong.
According to data from FE Analytics, it has made 64.56 per cent since launch in January 2011, compared with 9.84 per cent from the MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan benchmark.
Performance of fund vs index since Jan 2011
Source: FE Analytics
Coombs says he is hanging on to the fund even though he thinks dividend-paying stocks in general may be overvalued.
"They have been taking profits and rotating their portfolio. We don’t feel the valuation on their portfolio is excessive," he said.
The fund requires a minimum initial investment of £10,000 and charges a performance fee that takes 10 per cent of any outperformance of the MSCI Asia Pacific ex Japan index.
Coombs holds it in the Rathbone Multi Asset Total Return fund. David Hambidge, head of multi-manager at Premier, also tipped the fund in February.
The fund is also held by the Jupiter Merlin Balanced portfolio.
Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies
While open-ended First State funds are closing fast, buying the shares of one of their closed-ended trusts is still an option.
CF Adam Worldwide's largest position, at 4.37 per cent of AUM, is in Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies, managed by FE Alpha Manager Angus Tulloch.
CF Adam Worldwide is a top-quartile performer in the IMA Global sector over three, five and 10 years, according to data from FE Analytics, despite being just £31m in size.
The position in Tulloch’s trust can only have helped, as the latter has made 113.58 per cent over just three years, while the average fund in the Asia Pacific ex Japan sector – which includes many large cap portfolios – is up just 51.35 per cent.
The company issues new shares frequently to keep them trading close to net asset value (NAV), and is currently trading at NAV, according to the AIC.
It does have a performance fee calculated over three years’ performance, and inclusive of that, the charges last year were 1.96 per cent.
Schroder Asian Income
FE Alpha Manager Toby Ricketts holds this fund in both his £18m Margetts Opes Growth and £8.3m Margetts Opes Income portfolios.
The five crown-rated fund has £340m in assets under management, making it much smaller than the most popular fund in this area of the market, the £4bn Newton Asian Income.
Even though it is an income fund, the portfolio has managed to return more than the sector and its MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan index benchmark over three, five and 10 years, according to our data.
Over five years it has returned 86.51 per cent compared with 28.93 per cent from the average fund in the sector.
There is no guarantee that the current strong run of dividend-paying stocks will continue, but Ricketts does hold the fund in his growth portfolio too.
Three other funds also hold it in their top 10.
It requires a minimum initial investment of £1,000 and has ongoing charges of 1.7 per cent.
Schroder Oriental Income
The five crown-rated Jupiter Monthly Income fund has 6.02 per cent of AUM in the £405m Schroder Oriental Income trust.
The Jupiter fund has been run by FE Alpha Manager Ariel Bezalel since March 2011, and since then has substantially beaten the average fund in the IMA Flexible Investment sector with returns of 26.49 per cent to 14.57 per cent.
Although large, its position in Schroder Oriental Income is only the third-biggest in the fund. Bezalel also has 5.03 per cent in Aberdeen Asian Income.
Schroder Oriental Income is managed by Matthew Dobbs, who also runs the Schroder Asia Pacific trust.
The trust has returned 84.38 per cent over the past three years while its MSCI Asia ex Japan index benchmark is up just 24.43 per cent.
Performance of fund vs index over 3yrs
Source: FE Analytics
The fund has 30 per cent invested in Australia, which means it does not offer a pure emerging Asia investment, but that is the case with most of the Asian income funds which are currently so popular.
The trust has a performance fee, and ongoing charges amounted to 1.55 per cent last year inclusive of that figure.
