Fidelity Asian Values

The winners of tomorrow’ – starting to pay off?

3 February 2021

Fidelity Asian Values (FAS) seeks long-term capital growth through investment in Asian stocks, excluding Japan. The manager, Nitin Bajaj, adopts a value investing style focused on smaller-cap stocks, a sector which he believes nurtures ’the winners of tomorrow’, before they become well-known and expensive. This approach has been unfashionable for many years, and value and small-cap stocks have underperformed larger growth stocks, due to the popularity of mega-cap tech and other growth stocks. While this has hurt FAS’s returns, which have underperformed the benchmark over the long term and especially in Q120, it has generated some excellent opportunities for Bajaj to acquire quality businesses at attractive valuations. Following a Q420 bounce back of value stocks, including the smaller-cap companies Bajaj favours, his efforts to exploit these opportunities appear to have started to pay off. FAS’s performance has improved recently in absolute terms and against its blended benchmark. MORE »

Seeking the small-cap ‘winners of tomorrow’

21 July 2020

Fidelity Asian Values (FAS) aims to achieve long-term capital growth through investment principally in the stock markets of the Asian region, excluding Japan. It seeks to outperform the MSCI AC Asia ex-Japan Small Cap index mainly via stock selection. The manager, Nitin Bajaj invests in good businesses, run by good managers, trading at attractive valuations. He has a bias towards small-cap value stocks, a sector he believes nurtures ‘the winners of tomorrow’, before they become well known. Recent performance has disappointed, but FAS has delivered outright gains and outperformance versus its previous and new benchmarks over the long term and pays the highest dividend in its AIC sector. MORE »

Seeking quality companies at the right price

17 February 2020

Fidelity Asian Values (FAS) is managed by Nitin Bajaj. He employs a very disciplined process, seeking good businesses run by competent management, trading on attractive valuations. The polarisation in the stock market affords him many opportunities to invest in companies that fulfil his investment criteria. While the style bias against value stocks has affected the manager’s relative performance in recent years, FAS has a long-term record of outperformance versus both its previous and new benchmarks. The portfolio is trading on an average forward earnings multiple of less than 10x but has a 15% ROE, showing the manager is ‘seeking value without compromising on quality’. FAS also offers a 2.2% dividend yield, which is the highest in the three-strong AIC Asia Pacific Smaller Companies sector. MORE »

Last subscription share opportunity coming up

31 October 2019

Fidelity Asian Values (FAS) is managed by Nitin Bajaj, who aims to both grow and preserve shareholders’ capital, seeking double-digit annual total returns over a three- to five-year timeframe. The manager seeks to mitigate large capital losses in the portfolio by avoiding companies with high valuation multiples, extended balance sheets, modest margins and low liquidity. He is mindful to keep sufficient resources available to take advantage of investment opportunities when they arise. The last chance for investors to exercise their FAS subscription shares is on 29 November 2019, with the exercise price representing a 1.8% discount to the current share price. MORE »

Finding attractively priced opportunities

4 March 2019

Fidelity Asian Values (FAS) significantly outperformed its benchmark in the 2018 market sell-off, helped by its focus on capital preservation as well as growth. Manager Nitin Bajaj says that recent stock market volatility has enabled him to purchase market-leading businesses at very attractive prices, as valuation multiples have compressed while corporate earnings have remained robust. Bajaj notes that FAS’s portfolio is currently trading on a relatively low aggregate P/E multiple and is generating a relatively high return on equity. The trust has a long-term record of outperformance versus the MSCI AC Asia ex-Japan index. Its share price is ahead over one, three, five and 10 years, while its NAV has outperformed over one, five and 10 years. MORE »

Good businesses, good management, good price

30 October 2018

Fidelity Asian Values (FAS) is managed by Nitin Bajaj, who aims to generate long-term capital growth by finding ‘good businesses’ run by ‘good management teams’ that are available at a ‘good price’. The manager also aims to protect capital in periods of stock market weakness. Portfolio positions are only initiated after thorough fundamental research, which enables the manager truly to understand the businesses in which he invests. Bajaj’s approach is unconstrained and FAS’s NAV has outperformed its benchmark MSCI AC Asia ex-Japan index over five and 10 years, while its share price has outperformed over one, three, five and 10 years. The trust’s annual distribution has grown in the last four consecutive financial years; its current dividend yield is 1.5%. MORE »