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Investment confidence Scottish Oriental smaller companys is on an eternal mission: to find the best companies across Asia that will continue to grow no matter what happens in the broader economy.
It's an approach adopted seven years ago when the investment team running the trust was changed and has served shareholders exceptionally well. Over the past one, three and five years, investors have achieved returns of 13, 42 and 48 percent.
More importantly, Deputy Managing Director Sree Agarwal believes this continued focus on high-quality, market-leading businesses will reward shareholders well into the future.
“I am more excited about the trust's prospects than I have been in a long time,” he says. 'The portfolio is an exciting mix of companies with quality managers at the helm, good franchises and strong growth.'
Agarwal is part of a three-person team at FSSA Investment Managers that oversees the trust's portfolio. FSSA is a specialist in Asia and emerging equity markets and part of the global asset manager First Sentier.
As the trust's title indicates, its investment managers focus only on the best companies it considers small – essentially listed companies with a market capitalization of less than $5 billion (£3.9 billion). Agarwal says 350 companies are on the watchlist, of which 53 are included in the £322 million fund. No investments are made in unlisted companies.
Since Vinay Agarwal (no relation to Sree) took over in 2016 – Martin Lau completed the team – the fund's holdings have been reduced from 80.
Sree says the goal has been to build a more persuasive portfolio, with bigger stakes in the companies they like. For example, the top ten investments now represent 40 percent of the portfolio, compared to 25 percent in 2017.
This combined focus on smaller and high quality companies means the fund has a bias towards Indian equities. “We prefer market leaders as investments and in India we can find smaller companies that are suitable,” says Agarwal. 'It is more difficult in China because the market leaders are larger.'
For example, Blue Star is a leader in the supply of air conditioning units in India, accounting for almost 14 percent of sales; the country's cricketing sensation Virat Kohli is the brand ambassador of the company.
Since the trust took a stake in the company nine years ago, it has become a top ten holding company. “We expect Blue Star to go from strength to strength as demand for its air conditioning units grows. It is an embryonic market,” says Agarwal.
But Blue Star remains a smaller company with a market capitalization of £1.8 billion. In China, by contrast, air conditioning giant Gree Electric has a market capitalization of £19 billion, putting the company outside the trust's reach.
A common feature of the companies the trust manages is the ability to generate attractive returns from the capital they employ. “We like companies that require little capital, are largely debt-free and cash-generating,” says Agarwal.
Many of these companies are in the consumer goods sector, hence the trust's large positions in Colgate-Palmolive India and Philippines-based food processor Century Pacific Food.
The trust is not intended for dividend seekers, although it does provide a small income equivalent to an annual return of just over one percent.
Agarwal says the emphasis on growth companies means that any profits are often reinvested into the business rather than paid out in dividends.
The trust's stock exchange identification code is 0783613 and its ticker is SST. The annual cost is just over one percent.