Schroders has launched a China equities fund for Australian investors, providing local access to one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
The Schroder All China Equity Opportunities Fund is actively managed and has the flexibility to allocate to a variety of China equities, regardless of where they are listed – including China A-Shares, Chinese and Hong Kong listed companies and US-listed ADRs.
Graeme Mather, head of distribution, said that the gradual opening up of China’s capital markets provides investors with an opportunity that can’t be ignored.
“As the second largest stock market in the world and the biggest contributor to global economic growth, the size and ambition of China presents an attractive opportunity for investors.
“It is also a market where over 80% of assets are owned by retail investors creating an opportunity for more experienced institutional investors to add alpha and this has been the case in recent years with active managers generating strong returns above benchmarks.
“China is now leading other countries in terms of its economic recovery, and industrial activity has improved following the pandemic while domestic consumption is almost back to pre-pandemic levels.
“The share of Chinese equities in global benchmark indices is still relatively low when compared with China’s share of global GDP and in our view, it could be beneficial for investors to increase their exposure to this region as opposed to waiting for index providers to increase their weighting over time.”
Mr Mather said Schroders is well placed to focus on China equities due to a strong understanding of the region, having opened its first representative office in Shanghai in 1994.
“Schroders has an established investment business on the ground in China with 22 analysts and portfolio managers already managing US$13bn AUM in China equities.”
The Schroder All China Equity Opportunities Fund seeks to invest in the best Chinese companies by following a disciplined and repeatable investment process, leveraging proprietary long-term, fundamental, bottom-up research to identify investment opportunities from a broad universe of all Chinese companies without being constrained by their geographic listing locations.
The fund’s investment return objective is to outperform the MSCI China All Shares Index (after fees) over the medium to long term.
