Overview
Henderson Far East Income’s performance lagged that of comparable indices a little over the six months to the end of February 2015. The net asset value total return was 3.3% as compared to 3.9% for the FTSE All-World Asia Pacific ex Japan Index and 7.7% for the FTSE All-World Asia Pacific Index. The discount narrowed a little and the shares returned 4.0%. Two quarterly dividends of 4.7p are being paid for the first half – same as last year.
The manager says the underperformance is largely down to being underweight in India, a country that did very well over the period in stock market terms. They are also underweight a few large capitalisation but low / no yielding companies such as Tencent and Samsung Electronics – both these companies did well over the period. New purchases during the period included Indian telecom tower operator, Bharti Infratel; two Chinese A shares, Zhengtong Yutong Bus a manufacturer of electric buses and Gree Electric Appliances a manufacturer of air conditioners; Korea Electric Power, which is at the forefront of Korea’s reforms of state owned enterprises; and Singapore Telecom which they believe has the best collection of ASEAN telecom assets.
HFEL : Henderson Far East Income India underweight unhelpful