FE Alpha Manager Hugh Young heads the Asian Equities team at Aberdeen, which runs five FE crown-rated Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies and Aberdeen Asian Income.
Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies – run by First State – also has five FE crowns, while the portfolio is in the course of being taken over by FE Alpha Manager Angus Tulloch, although the current manager is Susie Rippinghall.
All three sit on premiums to NAV, with their excellent track record resulting in high popularity with investors.
Performance of trusts and index over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Schroder Oriental Income also has five crowns, although Matthew Dobbs has not been awarded FE Alpha Manager status. It does have the lowest TER of all the funds on the list, however, at 0.92 per cent.
Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies has the highest returns out of the trusts over one, three, five and 10 year periods, having returned a massive 938.9 per cent over a decade.
Scottish Smaller Companies is the only other portfolio with a track record that long, and it has made 722.93 per cent over that time.
The TER on all three funds is lower than that on most open-ended funds in the equivalent sector. Aberdeen Asian Income charges just 1.37 per cent, Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies 1.51 Per Cent and Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies 1.01 per cent.
Hugh Young’s Asian Equities team also runs two single country trusts in emerging Asia with five FE crowns.
Aberdeen New Thai has seen phenomenal gains since the turn of the millennium, making 1404.01 per cent since today’s date in 2000, according to data from FE Analytics. The stock exchange of Thailand benchmark has made 541.53 per cent in that time.
Performance of fund versus benchmark since December 2000
Source: FE Analytics
However, the trust lost 90 per cent of its value in the first two years of its life, then more or less flat lined before starting to take off in 2000.
It is currently trading on a discount of 14.4 per cent, according to the AIC, despite the fact that it has grown by 50.57 per cent on a total return basis in the year-to-date. The TER is 1.54 per cent, according to data from FE Analytics.
Aberdeen New India also has five FE Crowns, and the portfolio has made 373.18 per cent over the past decade.
The fund takes the MSCI India index as its benchmark, although it takes a non-benchmark approach, meaning that its performance can fluctuate from the index quite widely. The MSCI India has made 425.36 per cent over the last decade, beating the fund.
The portfolio has managed to beat the benchmark over five and three years, however, returning 15.13 per cent over the latter period while the benchmark has lost 0.67 per cent. The TER is 1.5 per cent.