abrdn Asian Income Fund - Quality through and through

abrdn Asian Income Fund (AAIF) is managed by abrdn, which has 30 years’ heritage of managing Asian equity strategies, one of the largest regional teams and $52bn in AUM across Asia and global emerging markets (at 30 June 2022). It is pleasing to see that after weaker relative performances in 2017, 2019 and 2020, AAIF has returned to form with strong relative showings in 2021 and 2022 converting into outperformance of the index and peers over one, three and five years. After dipping into reserves in 2020 and 2021, the board has guided for a fully covered dividend per share of 9.75p for FY22 and 10.5p for FY23. While China does not account for a significant part of the portfolio, which has been both a headwind and tailwind for the strategy, it continues to have a significant impact on the region’s prospects, making the recent reopening of China the most notable regional macro event of recent months.