The Pictet Emerging Markets High Dividend Fund will be available to investors from 7 June though a subscription period opened on 21 May.
It will concentrate on those emerging market companies that offer high and sustainable dividends. The new proposition will be managed by Mark Boulton and Stephen Burrows who have been running a similar proposition for Japanese investors – with $3.6bn in assets under management – since 2007.
Burrows took over as manager of the fund in September last year although he has been part of the team managing the fund since 2007. Boulton joined him in March this year and has been with Pictet since 1998.
The existing fund has a high weighting to Brazil (pushing 25% of the total) and Taiwan (17%) and China (15%).
Its sector bias is toward financials (25%), telecoms (15%) and IT, energy and materials (all 12% or 13%).
Burrows commented: “Most investors associate emerging markets with growth rather than income. But the situation has changed and you can now also get an attractive level of income from emerging markets.”
He and Boulton will run the fund with a value bias looking for companies able to pay sustainable dividends with good fundamentals. It will be part of the Pictet Luxembourg Sicav and is Ucits compliant.
