Marlborough installs Wong to lead Far East Growth

Marlborough has reorganised the management of its £68m Far East Growth fund in a bid to improve performance.

Christopher Wong has become lead manager following the departure of co-manager Jeffrey Lum in September.

Wong will be assisted by two new team members – Wing Tat Lau and Mark Chua.
In addition, the fund has more than doubled in size after Marlborough bought SLFC Unit Managers in September and merged the vehicle with the SLFC Far East trust.

Over the 12 months to 11 October, the fund has returned 10% compared to an IMA Asia Pacific ex Japan sector average return of 19.8%.

However, Wong said the new team is better placed to deliver stronger returns.

“Growth over the past year has not matched our objectives. We are now positioned to act more dynamically to seize opportunities, while remaining vigilant for anything unpleasant on the horizon that requires switching the portfolio to a more defensive posture,” he said.

He will also aim to use his absolute return background to control downside risk.
Meanwhile, Wong said Asian markets are at the start of a bull market powered by China, which, along with Hong Kong, accounts for almost 41% of the fund.

“My view is China will not devalue in the way the US government wants it to, and the renminbi is in the process of carving out a role to partially displace the US dollar as the key currency for international trade,” he said.

“The rising pre-eminence of the renminbi could be a catalyst for a sustained Asian bull market – as last experienced in the 1980s and 1990s.

“In my opinion, we could be standing today at a crossroads that marks the beginning of a structural bull market for Asian equities.”

South Korea is the second biggest weighting at 13.6%, which Wong has recently boosted through the acquisition of Samsung Heavy Industries and Hyundai.

“Hyundai is attractively valued on a P/E of less than 10 times earnings, and is well placed if the Fed’s QE2 measures stimulate spending by US consumers,” he said.