Manners' Prusik launches income fund

Heather Manners has soft-launched an Asian Equity Income fund, the third offering from her boutique Prusik Investment Management.

Tom Naughton manages the new vehicle, which is a long-only Asia ex-Japan portfolio investing across the market-cap spectrum. The 30-50-stock portfolio's expected dividend for 2011 is 6%, the manager says. He will aim to run a yield typically above 5% on the fund, which is Dublin-domiciled and weekly dealing. There are three main themes in the portfolio - ‘franchises' are generally be about 60% of the fund, including businesses with high barriers to entry; while ‘defensives', with highly predictable earnings; and ‘cyclicals' or growth industries are each 20% of the fund. At the geog...