Some investors might have come across Ezra Sun when he was at Newton, where he had a good track record managing Asian funds. A Chinese national, Mr Sun developed a reputation as a star Far East fund manager at Newton Investment Management where he managed the Newton Oriental Fund. In 2004 he joined Veritas Asset Management, an independent fund manager set up by Newton founder Stewart Newton in 1993 and currently managing around $2.5bn of assets.
Mr Sun has been managing the Veritas Asian Fund since 18 October 2004. The fund is designed for long-term investors who wish to build capital over a number of years through investment in a portfolio of equity and equity-related securities in companies located in Asia (excluding Japan).
Under his wing, the fund has put in impressive average performance of 18.96 a year for the past three years. Mr Sun remains positive on the Asian markets, rejecting the view that Asian markets are now expensive having had a powerful rally from the lows of the year.
The fund takes a thematic approach to investing in Asia with the fund being very domestically focused. He likes domestic consumer companies and real estate. He is also interested in renewable energy and internet companies, which are benefiting from rising penetration of broadband technology.
He says: "In our view global asset allocation in the coming years will have to embrace more of Asia. In the top-10 biggest companies by market capitalisation, five are now Chinese."
The fund is well-diversified among Asian countries, with the largest exposure to Hong Kong (27 per cent) and China (20 per cent).
In addition to an annual management charge of 1.5 per cent for the retail share class of the fund, the manager also levies a performance fee of 20 per cent on any performance greater than its benchmark MSCI AC Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) Total Return Net Index.
| VERITAS ASIAN RETAIL GBP NAV | |||
| PRICE | 195.49p | SHARPE RATIO | 0.19 |
| SIZE OF FUND | $669.54 million* | 6 MONTH PERFORMANCE | 33.66% |
| No OF HOLDINGS | na | 1 YEAR PERFORMANCE | 44.87% |
| SET UP DATE | 3 January 2006 | 3 YEAR PERFORMANCE | 65.95% |
| MANAGER START DATE | 18 October 2004 | TOTAL EXPENSE RATIO | 1.76%* |
| BETA | 0.5 | YIELD | 0.49* |
| VOLATILITY | 3.86 | MINIMUM INVESTMENT | £7,000 |
| TRACKING ERROR | 3.84 | MORE DETAILS | www.veritas-asset.com |
Source: www.ft.com/funds, * Morningstar
Notes: Price and performance data as at 5 October 2009
Top 10 holdings (30 June 2009)
| Holding | % |
| Samsung Fire and Marine | 2.8 |
| Bharti Airtel | 2.3 |
| Hon Hai Precision Industry | 2.3 |
| Cnooc | 2.2 |
| Ping An Insurance | 2.2 |
| Shimao Property | 2.2 |
| Bank of Communications | 2.1 |
| Hong Kong Exchange | 2.1 |
| Woodside Petroleum | 2.1 |
| Belle International | 2 |
Sector breakdown (30 June 2009)
| Sector | % |
| Industrials | 15.9 |
| General Financial | 15.2 |
| Real Estate | 15.2 |
| Technology | 13.3 |
| Telecommunications | 7.4 |
| Consumer Goods | 7.3 |
| Insurance | 7.1 |
| Oil & Gas | 5.7 |
| Consumer Services | 5.4 |
| Health Care | 2.2 |
| Basic Materials | 1.2 |
| Cash | 5.9 |
