{"id":108547,"date":"2025-10-08T10:21:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T10:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/108547\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T10:21:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T10:21:17","slug":"four-emerging-market-fund-and-trust-picks-to-capitalise-on-the-2025-rebound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/108547\/","title":{"rendered":"Four emerging market fund and trust picks to capitalise on the 2025 rebound"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts reveal their favourite vehicles to access emerging markets.<\/p>\n

Emerging markets have taken centre stage so far this year, turning around performance and beating all major indices, as the chart below shows.<\/p>\n

Performance of indices over the year to date
<\/strong>\"\"<\/p>\n

Source: FE Analytics<\/p>\n

Some investors were caught off guard, as the space has often been neglected for its perceived riskiness. Experts however are seeing more upside potential (for example at Baillie Gifford<\/a>), so it might not be too late to look at the space.<\/p>\n

In the first part of our emerging markets guide<\/a>, we covered why emerging markets have been doing better and how much of an investors\u2019 portfolio should be allocated to the region. In the second part<\/a>, experts highlighted trusts as a better option than funds and said global emerging markets trusts in particular are suited for most investors.<\/p>\n

Below, we reveal four strategies across different emerging markets sectors that experts had a preference for.<\/p>\n

First up, the Templeton Emerging Markets<\/a> trust was picked by Killik associate portfolio director Andrius Makin. With a broad mandate, this strategy looks for high-quality businesses with sustainable earnings power that are trading below their intrinsic value.<\/p>\n

It focuses on companies that are responsible stewards of investor capital, which Makin said is \u201ccrucial in emerging markets, where shareholder rights can be a secondary consideration\u201d.<\/p>\n

Performance of trusts against index and sector over 5yrs
<\/strong>\"\"
Source: FE Analytics<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strategy\u2019s focus on undervalued companies, coupled with the fact that it is currently trading on one of the widest discounts in the peer group, means investors are effectively benefitting from a \u2018double-discount\u2019,\u201d Makin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also like the board\u2019s shareholder-aligned approach. It has been active in buying back shares and introduced a performance-related tender last year running to 2029, which should help control the discount.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investment director at Fidelity International Tom Stevenson picked an open-ended fund from Fidelity\u2019s Select 50 best-buy list, Lazard Emerging Markets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Performance of fund against index and sector over 5yrs
<\/strong>\"\"
<\/strong>Source: FE Analytics<\/p>\n

The \u00a31.2bn strategy is co-managed by James Donald, Rohit Chopra, Monika Shrestha and Ganes Ramachandran and achieved a maximum FE fundinfo Crown Rating of five.<\/p>\n

The team members are contrarian investors who buy companies with depressed share prices, keeping a concentrated portfolio of about 80 shares.<\/p>\n

Fidelity analysts said the manager of the fund is \u201cexceptionally experienced\u201d and focused exclusively on managing emerging market equity funds.<\/p>\n

They suggested this fund could blend well with a quality fund that invests in businesses that are financially stronger or have competitive advantages but tend to be more expensive.<\/p>\n

Darius McDermott, managing director at Chelsea Financial Services and FundCalibre, chose something stylistically different. Contrary to the Templeton and Lazard portfolios, his pick was the FSSA Global Emerging Markets Focus<\/a> fund, which has more of a tilt towards growth rather than value.<\/p>\n

The fund is run by the \u201cexperienced\u201d Rasmus Nemmoe, who invests in quality companies with \u201csustained and predictable\u201d growth.<\/p>\n

From a universe of some 36,000 stocks, FSSA Global Emerging Markets Focus is a portfolio of just 40-45 best ideas, with McDermott appreciating the environmental, social and governance (ESG) ethos behind it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile relatively young, the fund has already shown a lot of potential,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Launched in July 2018, it has scored top-quartile returns over five years (as shown in the chart below), but 2025 has been less favourable so far.<\/p>\n

Performance of fund against index and sector over 5yrs
<\/strong>\"\"
<\/strong>Source: FE Analytics<\/p>\n

Currently, the main allocations are to China (37.3%), India (15.3%) and Taiwan (13.2%). At 8.3%, Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) is the largest name, followed by games developer Tencent (7.6%).<\/p>\n

ICICI Bank is also among the most held names \u2013 an expression of the fund\u2019s sectoral preference for financials (the top sector making up 27.8% of the portfolio).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Going even further afield<\/strong><\/p>\n

China and India dominate the emerging market landscape, something that investors may not be in favour of.<\/p>\n

As such,\u00a0 Makin said BlackRock Frontiers<\/a> could be a good option, noting it is a strategy that \u201cshould be on more investors\u2019 radar\u201d.<\/p>\n

It focuses on \u2018frontier\u2019 markets, which comprise a significant portion of the global population and GDP but \u201cbarely feature in most investors\u2019 portfolios\u201d. Top countries in the MSCI index include Vietnam, Morocco, Romania and Slovenia.<\/p>\n

The managers of the BlackRock trust combine a top-down process that considers macroeconomic and political risks with a bottom-up approach that attempts to find companies that are mispriced relative to their growth or intrinsic value.<\/p>\n

Performance of fund against sector over 5yrs
<\/strong>\"\"
<\/strong>Source: FE Analytics<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fund complements a broader EM strategy, although position sizing needs reflect the higher risks of investing in these less researched markets,\u201d Makin concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Experts reveal their favourite vehicles to access emerging markets. Emerging markets have taken centre stage so far this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[79,18,19,17,188],"class_list":{"0":"post-108547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-markets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}