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He so looks like an old-school Bond villain. I've called him "BRICFinger."
I agree on the rise of the EM consumer, but I don't think it will be a smooth rise. I own Dairy Farm International (which is - as far as I know - the only way to invest in IKEA, as it owns IKEAs in HK, Taiwan and soon Indonesia), which is 17% of the Mobius-run Templeton Dragon fund, as well as parent Jardine Matheson.
Thanks for that article - pretty interesting. He mentioned "ASEAN" as being one of the next big stories....meaning, the South East Asian nations/countries.
Global X has an ASEAN ETF called the Global X FTSE ASEAN 40 ETF (ASEA) and covers the original 5 ASEAN countries: Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines.
There's also the Market Vectors Vietnam ETF (VNM) up a nice 22% so far YTD.
One of my hesitations was that I was waiting for a breather in some of these countries because they have put up some fantastic EYE-POPPING 10-year performances! I wasn't sure how much more it could continue without some short-term breather. Let me give you an example in the Closed-end Fund space for 10-year annualized returns:
Malaysia Fund (MAY)...+14.71% Thai Fund (TTF)...........+18.32% Indonesia Fund (IF)......+27.42%
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I don't know what it is but despite Mobius' world travels to all of these EM and Frontier markets and seemingly has knowledge of their macroeconomic picture as well as some knowledge of all these companies that he visits --- his performance in the global Emerging Market space hasn't been very good....and I'm referring to his *Templeton Developing Markets Fund*
It hasn't kept up with the EM Fund category average nor the EM Index - and even M* says to "Take a pass on this emerging-markets stock fund"
Not only could he not beat the EM Index over the past 10 years but he couldn't beat it over the 12 years since 2000 and he also couldn't beat it since 1995 to today. That's weird with all that knowledge of the EM marketplace.
Could it be that he is more of a good world-traveling journalist rather than a really good investor when it comes to stock-picking, country allocation and timing of his purchases? His ideas and EM outlooks and EM growth stories have been very good all this time but his diversified EM funds have been relatively poor performers.
Reply to @Kenster1_GlobalValue: Undoubtedly the higher expense ratio is a sizable drag on its performance - 1.51% versus 0.20% Vanguard EM Index ETF, VWO. I believe there are other viable options besides Templeton Developing Markets Fund.
Comments
I agree on the rise of the EM consumer, but I don't think it will be a smooth rise. I own Dairy Farm International (which is - as far as I know - the only way to invest in IKEA, as it owns IKEAs in HK, Taiwan and soon Indonesia), which is 17% of the Mobius-run Templeton Dragon fund, as well as parent Jardine Matheson.
Global X has an ASEAN ETF called the Global X FTSE ASEAN 40 ETF (ASEA) and covers the original 5 ASEAN countries: Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines.
Fund Fact Sheet:
http://www.globalxfunds.com/ASEA/FS
Fund Investment Case:
http://www.globalxfunds.com/ASEA/IC
There's also the Market Vectors Vietnam ETF (VNM) up a nice 22% so far YTD.
One of my hesitations was that I was waiting for a breather in some of these countries because they have put up some fantastic EYE-POPPING 10-year performances! I wasn't sure how much more it could continue without some short-term breather. Let me give you an example in the Closed-end Fund space for 10-year annualized returns:
Malaysia Fund (MAY)...+14.71%
Thai Fund (TTF)...........+18.32%
Indonesia Fund (IF)......+27.42%
=============
I don't know what it is but despite Mobius' world travels to all of these EM and Frontier markets and seemingly has knowledge of their macroeconomic picture as well as some knowledge of all these companies that he visits --- his performance in the global Emerging Market space hasn't been very good....and I'm referring to his *Templeton Developing Markets Fund*
It hasn't kept up with the EM Fund category average nor the EM Index - and even M* says to "Take a pass on this emerging-markets stock fund"
Not only could he not beat the EM Index over the past 10 years but he couldn't beat it over the 12 years since 2000 and he also couldn't beat it since 1995 to today. That's weird with all that knowledge of the EM marketplace.
Could it be that he is more of a good world-traveling journalist rather than a really good investor when it comes to stock-picking, country allocation and timing of his purchases? His ideas and EM outlooks and EM growth stories have been very good all this time but his diversified EM funds have been relatively poor performers.