On Sunday I shared with you a bit about microbeads. This was something I had to read up on from scratch and my information came from research published on the Pacific Assets Trust website.
Earlier this week I sold most of my holding in Vodafone and reinvested in Pacific Assets. Basically they employ Stewart Investors to pick companies in the Asia Pacific region to invest in. The companies must tick these boxes: environmental, social, governance and sustainability. All very admirable and my first venture into ethical investing.
I could have simply bought a tracker fund based on the index they benchmark against. If you are a nerd this is the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Index. This would have significantly lower charges. Pacific Assets charge 1.3% a year – high for an investment trust. So why didn’t I do this? If you are a regular reader you will be aware that I hate high fees.
I’m betting on them picking companies that will out-perform that index. That’s what they have done in the last five years. Their share price is up 100%, the index is up 28%. Helpfully, they have told me how they are going to continue to do this. First by the countries their companies operate in. They are substantially over-weight in India and under-weight in China and Hong Kong, versus the index. Next by the sectors they choose. They have zero exposure to Energy and are under-weight in sectors like Materials, Industrials, IT and Consumer Discretionary. They have loaded up on Consumer Staples and Health Care. I like their approach and now will await events. By the way, they don’t pay much of a dividend, around 1%, but I’m looking for longterm capital appreciation.
Meanwhile, something Pacific-related with more pecs than Poldark.
https://youtu.be/ZgzvTHsOxSQ