Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Asia continues to be one of the fastest-growing regions in the world, with the changing and diverging rates and engines of growth across countries creating a fertile ground for experienced stock pickers for years to come. Man GLG, the discretionary investment management engine of global active investment manager Man Group, has launched a long-only, high-conviction equity fund – Man GLG Asia (ex-Japan) Equity – to capitalize on the region’s opportunities for stock picking and alpha generation.
The fundamentally-driven long-only, style agnostic fund will maintain a portfolio of approximately 35 to 45 positions across all market caps, with a preference for mid-cap companies. The team led by Andrew Swan (pictured), Head of Asia Equities (ex-Japan) at Man GLG, aims to achieve the majority of returns through investing in companies expected to see positive revisions to their earnings over a period of up to 12-18 months. Man GLG Asia (ex-Japan) Equity’s portfolio will typically maintain sector and country weights that vary between plus and minus 20 percent relative to the MSCI Asia Ex-Japan Index.
“Equity markets in the Asia region represent significant opportunities for stock picking and alpha generation,” Andrew Swan comments on the launch of Man GLG Asia (ex-Japan) Equity. “Many of the largest emerging market economies in Asia have undergone significant structural improvements over the last two decades and these, coupled with high levels of GDP growth, have provided fertile ground for companies to prosper,” he continues. “Despite this, they remain relatively under-researched and less efficient than developed markets, so we believe they offer ample opportunities for investors over the economic cycle.”
In addition to conducting bottom-up analysis, the team led by Swan will overlay various top-down macro views to better position the portfolio for alpha generation. The investment process involves analyzing the current macro environment and potential future developments to understand how countries, industries or investment styles such as growth, value, quality or momentum will perform. Swan, who has more than 25 years of experience investing in Asian equities, joined Man GLG in August of this year from BlackRock. He used to manage assets of over $25 billion across multiple strategies as Head of Asia & Global Emerging Market Fundamentals Equities at BlackRock.
“As a region, Asia is attractive because it’s a market where fundamentals dictate returns, and one with high dispersion at the stock level, making it a rich environment for proven managers like Andrew,” says Teun Johnston, CEO of Man GLG, which had $27.3 billion under management at the end of September 2020. “Both he and the team of analysts leading the development of this strategy at Man GLG have an established track record in the region and with clients,” adds Johnston. “We believe this is a particularly exciting time to launch this strategy and are pleased to add the fund to Man GLG’s increasingly diverse range of global equity strategies.”