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My name is Ayaz Ebrahim.
I have been at JPMorgan for eight years.
I have been managing Asian regional portfolios since 1991,
investing in the Asian equity markets.
I've managed the JPMorgan Asia Growth and Income investment
trust since 2015, when I joined JPMorgan.
I manage the fund with Rob Lloyd,
who is another senior regional portfolio manager.
And we've been managing it together since 2015.
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JAGI gives a broad exposure to the Asia equity markets.
The equity markets in Asia gives investors
returns for the longer term growth of the Asian economies.
We invest in high-quality and premium companies
in the Asian region that we believe
will compound returns for investors
over a multiyear period.
The JAGI dividend policy is, at the moment,
is to pay quarterly a dividend to shareholders
amounting to 1% of the NAV.
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JAGI is very much a bottom-up stock selection investment
strategy.
In terms of the risk of the portfolio, 80% of the risk
is actually through stock selection.
We have a very, very strong research platform.
We have about 100 investment professionals
that cover the Asian region.
And these investment professionals really
do a lot of research on the companies in Asia,
really understanding them very well,
and doing very robust analysis for us as portfolio managers
to build conviction on the stocks
that we are investing in.
There is a very strong team approach
between the analysts and the portfolio managers
to come up with views on companies in the Asian region.
In addition to stock selection, we
also have a top-down overlay, which
means that we can also underweight
and overweight countries, depending
on the attractiveness of those various regions at any given
stage of the cycle.
So we may overweight certain countries
because we think, over a shorter term period, that country may
do better than others.
But we may also underweight countries
because we think over the shorter term,
other countries may do better.
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The growth in Asia continues to be the highest
in any part of the world.
And this is still being led by big countries
such as China, India, and even places like Indonesia.
These countries have populations of over 100 million people.
GDP growth in these areas are still very high.
Indonesia, which we sometimes forget about
because China and India are so big,
also has a population of over 100 million people.
And Indonesia is also growing at a very rapid pace.
What does all this growth mean?
This growth means that the consumer, your average person
in all these countries, their income levels and wealth
is growing.
And that means growth for goods and services in all areas
that you can think of-- in terms of delivery of banking
services, the demand for consumer goods,
the demand for insurance products,
the demand for health care.
And there's a whole host of companies
that are listed in this region that benefits from this rising
spending power.
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We build conviction in individual stocks
by doing a lot of research on companies.
And frankly, there's no substitute
for just plain hard work in researching those companies.
We have 100 investment professionals
covering a lot of companies in the Asian region.
And it's not just one person that's looking at one stock.
We have at least four, five people
that are looking at one company, with building that research
knowledge, which is shared then amongst the team.
The sharing of this detailed work
really builds conviction for any individual portfolio managers.
And these views are shared formally
through models that are in our systems
but also through regular communication
as we discuss things.
So in short, it is very, very robust
analysis, strong financial modeling,
but also continuous communication
between team members.
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So we mitigate macro risks by reviewing our country
allocations on a regular basis.
And we formally do it quarterly, but it's a dynamic process.
If we feel things are changing on a macro basis,
we do adjust our country weightings.
We can go more overweight or underweight countries.
And we take into macro considerations when we do that.
In addition to that, by understanding our companies
really well from a bottom-up level,
we understand what factors could affect companies
from a macro basis.
And if we see some of these macro circumstances changing,
we will adjust our weightings in companies
by either reducing their weightings or selling them
or perhaps buying some companies that will benefit
from certain macro changes.
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We believe that the investment trust structure benefits
JAGI investors because by being closed end,
we do not have constant inflow and outflow of cash.
What does that mean?
It means that us as portfolio managers
are managing the portfolio without worrying
about how much money may be coming in
or how much money is going out.
So we manage it in the most efficient way
possible as a result.
In addition to that, the structure, the investment trust
structure, allows us to gear.
We do not gear often.
But when we have extreme market conditions,
when markets become very cheap, and our experience has told us
that when markets do become very cheap,
there is an opportunity to be had,
is that the probability of markets going up
over the next 12 to 24 months is high.
And that's when we actually gear the portfolio.
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