Somerset 'contrarian' Asquith targets LatAm and EMEA in latest EM launch

New Discovery fund offers investors an alternative to "index anchoring"

Somerset Capital Management portfolio manager Mark Asquith is backing "disliked" emerging markets in Latin America and EMEA within his new SMID-cap fund, and distancing himself from peers' portfolio favourites in an explicitly "contrarian" approach.

Following a "horrible decade" for emerging markets the MI Somerset Emerging Markets Discovery fund launched on 30 October near "the bottom of the cycle", according to Asquith, who said the portfolio offers investors an alternative to "index anchoring" peers. The MSCI Emerging Markets index has the vast majority of its exposure to Asia, with China, South Korea and Taiwan alone representing 31.9%, 12.2% and 11.5% respectively. This is reflected in the IA Global Emerging Markets sector, the funds in which have an average exposure to Asia Pacific equities of 49.3%, according to FE. Som...