Pidcock avoids South Korea on unity fears

Newton's Jason Pidcock is underweighting South Korea as he believes there is a strong possibility of integration with North Korea.

Speaking at the Investment Week Income Focus 2011 conference, Pidcock said reunification would cause taxes in South Korea to rocket, which would have a negative effect on consumption. He added Korea looks unattractive as a whole because companies tended to be “stingy with dividends and not inspiring from the shareholder point of view”. The £1.1bn Newton Asian Income fund, on which Pidcock is the lead manager, now has 2.4% weighted to South Korea. In contrast, the fund’s benchmark index, the FTSE AW Asia Pacific ex Japan, was 15.2%. Another substantial underweight for the fund is In...