One of the most notable winning strategies for the firm’s TM Cerno Select Fund, run by managing partner James Spence (pictured), has been its India exposure.
Like the Select fund, Cerno’s Global Leaders Fund, which is scheduled to debut on 1 November, is also agnostic on geography “investing in the best things regardless of where they’re based,” said Cerno partner and member of the investment team, Fergus Shaw.
“Of all the so-called emerging markets, India is the one where you have a really exciting dynamic and can see a genuine change on the high-level entrepreneurial side.
“There is a huge opportunity in the domestic market,” he continued, qualifying that “where you have to access that is by looking further down the cap scale and that means going to a specialist manager.”
One of Shaw’s favourite India funds is Ocean Dial Asset Management’s Gateway to India Fund, currently accounting for 9.2% of the portfolio.
“Our Indian allocation has been good, particularly this year. Last year, it was up and down a bit. The fund’s manager Sanjoy Bhattacharya is doing exactly what he is meant to and is outperforming his market index by a long way.”
Japan has also captured Shaw’s imagination because “in a world where the biggest risk is valuations, Japan offers you some value and a corporate dynamic which is changing,” he explained.
The team at Cerno is partial to the Michinori Japan Equity Fund, overseen by Goodhart CIO Sean Lenihan, whose credits include portfolio manager in Schroders’ Japan office and Wellington Investment Management.
