Teverson manages the Jupiter Global Emerging Markets Unconstrained SICAV fund, which launched in March 2015.
Seven people are on the investment team, which does bottom-up analysis from a stock pickers’ perspective.
The fund is differentiated from other EM products because it is “genuinely benchmark-agnostic”, he told Fund Selector Asia.
The benchmark has no bearing over how his team builds a portfolio, and the active share measure of the fund – the percentage of stock holdings that differ from the benchmark index – is close to 90%, he added.
A benchmark-agnostic approach also brings the flexibility to be zero weighted in markets that don’t offer compelling opportunities.
“Contrast that to benchmark-aware funds. Stocks may be held not because the manager has a particularly strong view on them, but because they provide some exposure to these markets in the index.”
Stock-specific drivers
Weighting in financial stocks in the fund is significantly lower compared to the benchmark and to other EM managers, while consumer sector weighting is significantly higher, he said.
In absolute terms, weighting in those sectors is similar at around 20-22% of the fund.
“In the financial sector, often macroeconomic factors are the biggest driver of stock returns but I’m looking to add value at the business level.”
By comparison, in the consumer space, management decisions are more likely to improve the stock price. “Stock-specific drivers are much more powerful than macro factors.”
