Schroder Asian Total Return Investment Company

Schroder Asian Total Return Investment Company (ATR) is a unique Asian equity portfolio with an unconstrained absolute return approach which seeks to harness the upside from equities in the region over the long term whilst using derivatives to eliminate the ‘noise’ of market and country risk.

The £290m trust, managed by Robin Parbrook and Lee King Fuei, aims to generate returns via a diversified portfolio of around 60 holdings in Asia – including Australia but excluding Japan – with a bias toward smaller and mid-cap stock, which the managers prefer because they are less well researched.

ATR has much in common with its open-ended counterpart – the $2.1bn Schroder ISF Asian Total Return fund – which is closed to new business. The fund has delivered total returns of 321% since it was launched in November 2007, three times as much as the MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan index, while protecting capital well during negative markets.

Since Schroders took control of the trust, winning shareholder approval in March 2013 the team has produced excellent results; delivering higher annualised returns than the MSCI Asia Pacific ex Japan index and the average fund in the peer group AIC Asia Pacific ex Japan sector, a lower maximum drawdown, much lower beta (0.64%) and much higher annualised alpha (4.54%) than the average trust in the sector (0.84% and 0.96% respectively).