The future looks bright
Asia has been on a remarkable journey in the past few decades. Powered by the rise of China, the region has become an increasingly important part of the global economy. This progress is expected to continue as countries like India, Indonesia and Vietnam experience rapid economic growth and intra-regional trade increases.
Across Asia, trends such as urbanisation, infrastructure investment and increased consumption could be powerful drivers of economic growth in the coming years. With the balance of the global economy arguably shifting eastwards, we believe the future for Asia looks bright.
The investment story of the next decade
China is the world’s second largest economy and a global leader in many industries. But its stockmarket has not matched its economic prominence. In recent years, Chinese equities have significantly underperformed global peers and they only constitute around 3% of the global index*.
While many investors are understandably nervous about China, we believe now is an compelling time for investors to take a closer look at Chinese equities.
Today, the combination of attractive valuations, globally competitive businesses, more shareholder-friendly corporate behaviour and supportive government policies makes China, in our view, a favourable environment for discovering bottom-up stock picking opportunities.
*As represented by the MSCI ACWI Index
Smarter growth
Exciting developments have also been taking place at Asian companies. Manufacturing firms have continued to innovate and some of the most advanced technological products are now made in Asia. In areas as diverse as banking, e-commerce, automotive and renewables, pioneering Asian companies are shaping the future of their industries and could become dominant players on the world stage.
Importantly for investors, many Asian companies today are more focused on profits than in the past. There has been a shift towards generating higher returns on invested capital, what we call ‘smarter growth’, as well increased returns for shareholders.
In our view, Asia’s trailblazing shareholder-friendly companies offer an exciting opportunity for long-term investors to participate in the region’s dynamic future.
The value of the fund's assets will go down as well as up. This will cause the value of your investment to fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you originally invested. The views expressed in this document should not be taken as a recommendation, advice or forecast.
Meet the team
David Perrett
Co-Head of Asian Investment
- David joined the M&G Equity team in September 2019 as the co-Head of Asia Pacific Equity Investments. He is the fund manager for the M&G Asian Fund, as well as the deputy fund manager of the M&G Japan Fund and M&G Japan Smaller Companies Fund.
- David began his investment career in 1991 in the graduate scheme with Prudential Portfolio Managers in London before becoming the Asian Equity Strategist the following year. Later, as the regional strategist and regional director for Prudential Portfolio Managers (Hong Kong and Singapore), he worked with the CEO to introduce a new investment process.
- In 2001, David became the Chief Investment Officer, Life & Institutional for Prudential Asset Management (Hong Kong), managing a large team of investment professionals and assets across the Asia Pacific region.
- From 2004, David was the Managing Director and Portfolio Manager for the Fundamental Investment Group (FIG) of UBS Securities. Responsible for directly investing UBS’s proprietary capital across the Asia Pacific region via an absolute return, fundamentally driven long-short strategy.
- David co-founded Port Meadow Capital Management in 2014, where he ran pan Asian long-short equity strategies for institutional clients.
- He graduated from the London School of Economics with a Bachelor of Science, Economics and also holds a Master of Science, Economics from the University of London.
George Rolls
Investment Specialist
- George became the Investment Specialist for the Global Emerging Markets strategy at M&G in February 2020.
- Previously he had been working for the wider global equities business as a specialist and before this as a Fund Manager's Assistant for the Emerging Markets Equities team.
- In 2023 he broadened his client responsibilities to include representation for M&G’s Pan Asian Equity team.
- He joined M&G in 2017 having previously worked as a Senior Performance and Risk analyst at Close Brothers Asset Management, where he also completed a graduate scheme.
- He graduated with a BA (Hons) in Philosophy and Politics from the University of Manchester in 2013 and is a CFA charter holder.
