It may seem odd to be lauding an emerging markets fund manager at a time when China is gripped by the worst flu epidemic for years, but Ashmore deserves it.
Run by billionaire Mark Coombs, who borders on secretive in his media shyness, Ashmore is as far from being a flashy Jupiter or Aberdeen as can be. It raises its funds exclusively from institutional investors and private banks, saving a fortune on marketing to the public, and runs a tight focused ship largely buying debt in difficult parts of the world.
Its main rival is probably the huge Pimco. But, as one analyst puts it, when those guys go in to try and win a client, they send an expert pitch team. When Ashmore does it, the fund managers themselves do the talking.
Investors are suckers for that horses’ mouth approach and don’t have many other places to go to find it. Especially from a manager with a presence in 80 emerging market countries.
The result; Ashmore has profit margins of an outlandish 69%. You might call that gouging if it weren’t for the fact that 75% of the funds outperformed their benchmarks over the past three years. Besides, if the pros giving Ashmore their money are happy, who are we to gripe?
After a 28% leap in fund inflows on last year, the company now has $100 billion under management.
Researchers Charlton Illingworth say the top managers by inflows over the past year — Ashmore, Liontrust and Impax — are all specialists.
At 20 times future earnings, Ashmore shares trade on a cheaper multiple than the others in that trio. Buy.
