See the gallery of pictures here.
Last Word Media’s managing director in Asia Tom Porter introduced well-known Hong Kong broadcaster and business journalist Andrew Wood as the conference chairman of the proceedings.
The analysis that followed from the six speakers, with questions and answers at the end of each talk, covered the ways of assessing and gaining exposure to the dominant economies of the emerging markets, and the state of the western developed world with the drama in Europe unfolding day by day as some of its economies drown in debt. The contribution of dividend income to total returns was another theme.
The first speaker Avinash Vazirani, head of the south east asia equities team for Jupiter gave a thoughtful analysis of the investment opportunities in India.
Then came Robert Horrocks, PhD, chief investment officer and portfolio manager of Mathews Asia, who entertained with a lively talk on why China should be considered an asset class.
Caroline Maurer, fund manager of Henderson Horizon China Fund at Henderson Investors, gave a clear assessment of the 2012 risk/reward outlook for China.
While Stephen Thornber, Threadneedle Investments fund manager for global equities, asked whether equity income was a fad or sustainable.
Martin Gray, fund manager and director for MAM Funds gave his distinct perspective on multi asset management in today’s volatile macroeconomic environment.
And Julie Hutchison, head of International technical insight, rounded off the talks by covering an ambitious sounding A to Z of tax and other technical issues for international clients in a clear and illuminating way.