Aberdeen Asian Income Fund

Income style and quality bias

20 April 2021

Aberdeen Asian Income Fund (AAIF) may appeal to investors interested in income. While perhaps less well known than the UK equity income funds, AAIF yields 4.0%, the second highest of the four Asian income peers, and with a solid performance track record. The team targets the income and growth potential of Asia's most compelling and sustainable companies. Income seekers might gain core exposure to the Asia consumption-driven growth story complemented by structural dividend growth. The focus on high-quality businesses creates a relatively defensive tilt in regional equities. The manager expects the ‘value’ rotation that began in Q420 across Asia and boosted AAIF’s performance, to continue in 2021. MORE »

Benefiting from focus on quality and income

24 November 2020

Aberdeen Asian Income Fund (AAIF) has recovered well from the widespread market sell-off driven by the coronavirus pandemic, although its focus on quality stocks with attractive dividends has held back returns relative to the broad Asian index, which is increasingly dominated by non-yielding Chinese internet companies. Portfolio manager Yoojeong Oh says the team has ridden the technology wave differently, with exposure to semiconductor companies that are supporting the cloud-based boom in working from home, as well as e-commerce stocks in high-yielding markets like Taiwan, and firms that benefit from green stimulus in Europe. While gearing (currently c 8%) was a drag in the March market falls, keeping it steady has helped boost returns in the recovery, and the fund is on track to deliver a 13th consecutive year of dividend growth, partly supported by reserves it has built up over the past decade. MORE »

Focus on capital growth and dividend yield

12 March 2020

Aberdeen Asian Income Fund (AAIF) is managed by Aberdeen Standard Investments Asia (ASI Asia), aiming to provide reliable quarterly income and long-term capital growth. Its investment process identifies high-quality and attractively valued stocks that can be held for the long term. Manager Yoojeong Oh says that Asia offers attractive growth opportunities and dividend prospects, and ‘the number of dividend-paying stocks is on the rise’. She highlights the deep resources of the ASI Asia investment team, suggesting its presence on the ground and an extensive number of company meetings provides a strong foundation for successful bottom-up stock selection. While AAIF does not have a formal benchmark, its NAV has outperformed the MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex-Japan index and the MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex-Japan High Dividend Yield index over the long term. MORE »

Long-term record of double-digit total returns

16 August 2019

Aberdeen Asian Income Fund (AAIF) aims to generate an above-average level of income and long-term capital growth, even in challenging times, from a diversified portfolio of Asia Pacific equities. Data from the fund’s manager Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) Asia highlight the importance of income in the region; since 2000, c 50% of share price total returns have been from reinvested dividends and corporates are supportive of dividend growth. AAIF has generated double-digit NAV and share price total returns over the last decade and currently offers a 4.4% dividend yield. The dividend is well covered and the fund has c 0.9x the FY18 annual distribution in revenue reserves. MORE »

Finding attractively valued income opportunities

18 December 2018

Aberdeen Asian Income Fund (AAIF) aims to provide its investors with an attractive income, plus the potential for capital growth, by investing across the Asia Pacific region. The fund’s target c 4.5% yield is fully funded from portfolio income. AAIF’s investment process is bottom-up, with a strong focus on finding quality companies at attractive valuations. The managers meet all the companies they hold at least twice a year, and place great emphasis on understanding each company’s balance sheet and growth drivers to ensure everything in the c 40–70 stock portfolio is worthy of its place. AAIF’s quality and income focus means it has a natural bias to some more defensive areas, which could stand it in good stead in the current bout of market volatility. Its managers note that valuations in Asia are low in relation to Europe, North America and their own historical averages, and some individual stocks are very inexpensive versus history. MORE »