Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning, Copley Fund Research

Steven Holden

Steven Holden is the CEO and Founder of Copley Fund Research, an independent provider of research on equity fund positioning and performance.  Set up in 2014, Copley focuses on global, global emerging market, US, Asia Ex-Japan and China active equity funds, covering over $4tr in assets across 1300 active managers.  The company provides data and analysis on market trends, manager exposures and active fund performance to an audience of investment managers, pension funds and fund selectors worldwide.  Mr Holden’s 14-year investment banking career started in 2000, where he worked for Morgan Stanley as an equity derivative trader focused on emerging markets in London.  Following this, he spent 4 years at Citibank in London and Hong Kong as an Executive Director in derivative sales, focused again on emerging markets.

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning

China Banks; Deep Value Despite the Rising Credit Quality Risks

China Merchants Bank - New Results: Property Dev. NPLs at 5.5% from 4.1%...  25% Lower Credit Costs

Postal Savings Bank of China – Way Too Conservative

Battle Lines Drawn As BABA Builds Out First/Last-Mile Capacity; But Who Will Fund 75+ Bn CNY CapEx?

Copley Fund Research

Copley Fund Research provide research and data on asset allocation among Global and Emerging Market equity funds.  The analysis details absolute and relative positioning across countries, sectors and industries together with highly granular data on single stock and single fund allocations.  The data is updated monthly with time series going back to January 2011.

Global Research - Analysis of 165 prominent Global equity funds, combined AUM $335bn
GEM Research - Analysis of 127 prominent global EM equity funds, combined AUM $250bn

Asset Allocation - Global and GEM Equity

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul>
<li>Fund exposure to China &amp; HK Banks closes in on lowest levels on record</li>
<li>Asia Ex-Japan investors prefer Indian and Indonesian Banks, whilst Tech/Internet industry groups dominate portfolios.</li>
<li>China &amp; HK Banks stand as the largest industry underweight, with 87% of funds positioned below the benchmark. Underperformance is expected.</li>
</ul>


Fund exposure to China &amp; HK Banks closes in on lowest levels on record
Asia Ex-Japan investors prefer Indian and Indonesian Banks, whilst Tech/Internet industry groups dominate portfolios.
China &amp; HK Banks stand as the largest industry underweight, with 87% of funds positioned below the benchmark. Underperformance is expected.


China Banks: Depressed Positioning