Investing in the Asia Growth Story
With Australia signing the world’s largest-ever free trade deal, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), this may present further opportunities to build closer business ties with our Asian neighbours.
The signatories include Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand & Vietnam.
If you’re bullish on the rapid growth and opportunities in the Asia region, there’s an easy way of getting exposure to your favourite companies (like Samsung, Tencent & Alibaba Group) via ASX-listed ETFs or LICs. Not an extensive list, but I’ll cover some below:
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) & Listed Investment Companies (LICs)
BetaShares Asia Technology Tigers ETF (ASX: ASIA) – access to the top 50 largest technology and online retail stocks in Asia (ex-Japan).
iShares China Large-Cap ETF (ASX: IZZ) – access to 50 of the largest Chinese stocks (listed in HK) in a single fund.
VanEck Vectors Video Gaming and eSports (ASX: ESPO) – not an Asia specific ETF, but holds stocks with heavy exposure to Asia (e.g. Tencent, Nintendo & Sea Limited).
Platinum Asia Investments Limited (ASX: PAI) – offers investors access to an actively managed, diversified portfolio of Asian (ex-Japan) companies across industry sectors. Holdings as at Sep-20 include Taiwan Semiconductor, Samsung Electronics, Tencent, Alibaba & AIA Group.
Magellan Global Equities Fund (ASX: MGE) – an active ETF investing in 20 to 40 of the world’s best global stocks. Not Asia specific, but there are holdings in Alibaba & Tencent (as well as Alphabet/Google, Facebook & Microsoft). As at Oct-20, about 19% of the fund is exposed to China.
VGI Partners Asian Investments Ltd (ASX: VG8) – gives investors access to a concentrated portfolio of long and short positions in Asian listed securities (looks like they have a Japan focus). As at Nov-20, holdings include: Nintendo, Olympus, Kikkoman, Yakult & Kewpie.
This is not an extensive list (or investment advice), so do some digging!
