Benchmark freedom and EM investing

By International Adviser, 23 Apr 15

If the manager is freed from the benchmark, emerging markets offer many opportunities from a stock-picker’s perspective, particularly if headlines are negative, according to Ross Teverson, head of strategy for global emerging markets at Jupiter Asset Management.

If the manager is freed from the benchmark, emerging markets offer many opportunities from a stock-picker's perspective, particularly if headlines are negative, according to Ross Teverson, head of strategy for global emerging markets at Jupiter Asset Management.

Tuning out noise

Teverson was lured over to Jupiter in 2014 from Standard Life Investments in Hong Kong, where managed the Global Emerging Market Equity Unconstrained SICAV.

According to analysis from FE, the fund “significantly outperformed the index under his management”.

The Jupiter fund is managed out of the UK. After about six years at SLI in Hong Kong, Teverson said he found no benefit to being physically located on-the-ground in an Asian market.

“The disadvantage is there’s a huge amount of day-to-day noise and we’re on a one-two year or longer time horizon. The real important factors in our investment decisions don’t come and go with daily news flow but from ongoing conversations with the companies we speak to.”