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Risk Considerations

  1. The Fund is actively managed and invests mainly in a widely diversified portfolio of shares of emerging market companies.
  2. Investment in the Fund involves risks, including general investment risk, equity market risk, risks associated with depositary receipts, emerging markets risk, exclusion criteria risk, risk associated with high volatility of equity markets in emerging countries, risk associated with regulatory/exchanges requirements of the equity markets in emerging countries, geographic concentration risk, small and mid-capitalisation shares risk and currency risk which may result in loss of a part or the entire amount of your investment.  
  3. The Fund may use derivatives for hedging and efficient portfolio management and is subject to derivatives risk. Exposure to derivatives may lead to a risk of significant loss by the Fund.
  4. The value of the Fund can be volatile and could go down substantially.
  5. Investors should not invest in the Fund solely based on this website.

Investment involves risk. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of current or future results and should not be the sole factor of consideration when selecting a product or strategy.

SICAV
Emerging Markets Discovery Equity Fund
Seeks to increase the value of its shares, over the long term, through growth in the value of its investments.
ISIN LU1244138183
FACTSHEET
KFS
SFDR DISCLOSURE
30-Nov-2023 - Ernest Yeung, Portfolio Manager,
We believe that capital spending in emerging markets will substantially increase in response to the capacity requirements needed to achieve the decarbonisation of industries and the impact of deglobalisation. The rebuilding of supply chains and transition to green energy could benefit value-oriented companies such as those in the financials and industrials sectors.

Overview
Strategy
Fund Summary
Actively managed and invests mainly in a widely diversified portfolio of shares of emerging market companies.
Performance - Net of Fees

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

30-Nov-2023 - Ernest Yeung, Portfolio Manager,
Emerging market equities advanced in November following three consecutive months of declines. Rising hopes for the end of US interest rate increases, expectations of more growth-supportive policies in China, and signs of the semiconductor cycle bottoming out drove market gains. Within the portfolio, our stock choices in China detracted from relative performance. Our lack of exposure to a rising e-commerce company hurt as it outperformed due to stronger-than-expected results in the third quarter. Among stocks we own, our position in a brewer dragged as third-quarter sales disappointed due to the unfavorable weather in northern China and a high-comparison base from last summer. We continue to like the company given its improved industry structure, rising interest in domestic brands and it is a more commercial organisation spurred by its stock incentive plan. Taiwan hampered portfolio performance due to our underweight allocation. Technology-heavy Taiwan equities held on to gains during the month despite political uncertainty in the lead-up to the island’s presidential election in 2024. In contrast, Brazil contributed the most to relative returns, thanks to stock selection. In particular, owning shares of one of Latin America’s largest investment banks helped following its third-quarter results, which beat expectations.
31-Mar-2022 - Ernest Yeung, Portfolio Manager,

Our positions reflected our focus on self-help stories, our re-opening thesis, and traditional economy stocks benefiting from the higher capital expenditure that corporates have been under-invested in the last few years. It also benefits from the transition to a greener world mapped out at last November's COP26 climate summit.

We believe our research has helped us identify good investment opportunities among EM companies whose managements have become proactive in restructuring in the wake of the pandemic. These self-help measures include initiatives like cutting costs, selling assets, shifting capacity, and changing product mix.�

In our view, there are ample opportunities for us to identify pockets of "forgotten" EM stocks. For example, we were positioned in a cyclical commodity play in the first stage of the pandemic recovery in 2020. Then we rotated to the next stage and added to financials as the rate hike cycle started. Now, we believe the recovery is entering yet another stage and portfolio positioning has shifted back towards the core end of value.

China �

We took advantage of the recent market weakness as we believe that regulatory crackdowns are cyclical in nature.

  • We found a compelling entry point into online travel agent Trip.com on our economic re-opening thesis and on valuation grounds. The company's Q4 2021 earnings beat expectations and we believe the company will maintain its dominant market share in the online travel agency business thanks to its competitive advantages. In our view, it is well positioned to enjoy the long-term growth of Chinese outbound travel, which generates faster revenue growth and higher operating margins than domestic business.
  • We bought shares of Tingyi, one of the largest food and beverages companies in China by revenue with market-leading positions in most of its segments in noodles and beverages.

Russia �

The Russian market was a relatively small part of our portfolio, but risks increased meaningfully after the sanctions by Western nations significantly impacted the financial sector and its ability to settle U.S. dollar transactions. We quickly reduced our risk and exposure to Russia during the quarter.

Mexico

We added to our positions in Mexico because we felt stocks were trading at attractive valuations and the economy was set to benefit from the uptrend in commodity prices.�

  • We bought shares in Grupo Mexico, which we think is a sum-of-the-parts story offering a resilient dividend clip on copper in the medium term and unique organic growth optionality in the longer term.

Consumer Discretionary

We cut our exposure to the sector as a result of reduced holdings in certain segments.

  • We trimmed Prosus, a Dutch multinational conglomerate company, which holds Naspers' global internet business. It holds shares in Tencent, which faced regulatory headwinds. The company also had to write off a sizeable stake in one of Russia's largest internet companies, VK Group, as a consequence of sanctions on the group's CEO amidst the conflict in Ukraine.
  • Huayu Automotive is one of China's biggest auto parts suppliers. We sold shares as we see mounting pressure for Huayu's major customers, Volkswagen and General Motors, from local brands. The company itself faces competition from local suppliers in many of the emerging areas such as electrification and advanced driver assistance systems.

Brazil

We found some opportunities in Brazil, where we think valuations are attractive in an economy benefiting from strong commodity prices.

  • We bought shares of packaging company Klabin, which is an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) friendly business and in our view is undervalued by mainstream investors. It is a low-cost producer adding capacity at the low-end of the cost curve in a commodity with attractive medium-term fundamentals. As an integrated paper and packaging producer, we believe it is likely to benefit from strong secular trends such as increasing e-commerce penetration, plastic-to-paper substitution, and increasing interest in negative emission businesses and technologies.
  • BTG Pactual is one of the largest investment banks in Latin America. We bought shares as the bank is diversifying into asset and wealth management businesses, which we think have more predictable earnings and deserve a higher multiple than the firm's sales, trading, and investment banking businesses.
30-Nov-2023 - Ernest Yeung, Portfolio Manager,
Financials remains our biggest absolute allocation and our largest overweight. In addition to the sector benefitting from the interest rate hike cycle, we continue to believe that emerging-market banks play a crucial role in supporting corporate spending and green energy transition. We believe that the banks we own have strong capital buffers, low-risk balance sheets, high-quality franchises, and are well-positioned to gain market share and accelerate loan growth. We also own insurers with strong balance sheets and reliable management teams which are aiming to upgrade the quality of their sales.
30-Nov-2023 - Ernest Yeung, Portfolio Manager,
Mexico remains our largest relative country overweight exposure. Here, we prefer to own businesses that benefit from exports and from companies moving production to Mexico as they seek to manufacture closer to the US. For example, we own one of the world’s largest corn flour and tortilla producers with a high visibility of margin recovery. We increased our allocation in Brazil after recently acquiring shares of an aircraft manufacturer. We are in the initial stages of an upcycle in the global aerospace market and believe this creates a good top-down set up for the plane maker.

Disclosure on Vendor Indices can be found here.