Published by WealthBriefingAsia – 30th March 2015
The global asset manager has appointed familiar face Nitin Bajaj to lead the Fidelity Asian Values investment trust.
Fidelity Worldwide Investments’ Nitin Bajaj has been named as portfolio manager of Fidelity Asian Values trust.
Bajaj takes on the new role from his position as portfolio manager of Fidelity’s Asian Smaller Companies fund. Based in Singapore, he replaces John Lo, who will continue to manage segregated institutional mandates and focus on his open-ended funds.
The board of Fidelity Asian Values said the change reflects a shift to a strategy that better fits Fidelity Asian Values’ closed-ended structure.
“Over his thirteen year tenure to 31 January 2015, the trust returned 12.3 per cent, compared with 10.7 per cent (annualised) for the MSCI All Countries (Combined) Far East ex Japan Index. This is an excellent achievement and one of which John can be extremely proud,” said Fidelity Asian Values’ chairman, Kate Bolsover.
Bajaj has been with Fidelity Worldwide Investment for over a decade, during which period he worked on the Fidelity Global Special Situations Fund and managed two Indian equity funds.
“Nitin is a value investor and aims to generate alpha through stock selection within the Asia Pacific ex Japan region in a manner which the Board believes closely delivers the investment objective for its shareholders.”
Bolsolver highlighted Nitin’s preference to invest in smaller companies that are usually less well-researched and therefore offer greater valuation anomalies.
In other changes, Fidelity Asian Values’ reference index will change this August to the MSCI AC Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) index, which includes India, Australia and New Zealand.
“Although Asia has slowed down in line with the rest of the world from the levels seen before the financial crisis, the region’s structural growth story remains intact and it should continue to be one of the fastest growing in the world. The Board believes that the changes announced today position the fund to make the most of these opportunities for the benefit of shareholders,” said Bolsover.
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