The Luxembourg-domiciled Ucits fund, which has $70.9m (£49.3m, €63.6m) in assets under management, is run by Jonathan Schiessl and Simon Finch. It is a high conviction traditional buy and hold strategy investing across market caps with 42% currently invested in mid and small cap stocks.
Strategy
The strategy aims to invest in companies that can deliver compounding returns by focusing on the quality of management, franchise, and balance sheet. Consequently, the concentrated 25-30 stock fund has had a very low turnover of 10.6% for the last year and very strong risk adjusted returns.
Matthew Kemp, newly appointed head of UK wholesale for Ashburton Investments, said: “We have a top performing fund and we are launching the Sterling share class in direct response to client interest within the UK Wholesale market, given the recent accolades the fund and manager has received. This will also make the fund more widely accessible via a number of platforms.”
Schiessl, Ashburton’s chief investment officer (International), added: “We see positive reflections of Indian fundamentals, from improving governance to infrastructure investment and growing consumption thanks to strong demographics.
“India’s investment potential for the long-term remains firmly intact and has recently been strengthened by the positive response to the Union budget at the end of February, as well as Modi’s continued push to invest in 25 key sectors across the country through initiatives such as ‘Start-up India’ and ‘Make in India’.”
The India Equity Opportunities Fund has a 4* Morningstar rating, and Citywire Gold and AAA ratings for its strong performance over three years. The fund has a robust track record, returning +44.5% since its launch in September 2012 (against +8.4% for its MSCI Benchmark) and is ranked in the top decile of its peer group.
Four funds launched
In addition, Ashburton is launching sterling share classes for three other funds which sit on its Luxembourg platform – the Africa Equity Opportunities Fund, the India Fixed Income Opportunities Fund, and the Global Energy Fund.
Minimum investment into the new sterling share classes, due to launch in the second quarter of 2016, will be £100,000 for institutional class and £10,000 for retail share class.
