Aberdeen Asia Focus (AAS)

After nearly a decade involved with the Management of Aberdeen Asia Focus (AAS), Gabriel Sacks has now taken on sole lead manager duties, supported by co-manager Xin-Yao Ng, to implement their bottom-up, stock selection driven approach to identifying the best quality smaller companies from across Asia.

This approach has delivered considerable long-term success, with five-year returns of 60.4% to 23/03/2026, far in excess of the trust’s benchmark, the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Small Cap Index, which returned 39.8%. In addition, AAS was awarded Kepler’s Growth rating for 2026. This Performance has largely been driven by stock selection, aided by Aberdeen’s sizeable on-the-ground presence, which helps the managers identify undiscovered opportunities and capitalise on their growth. This has been particularly evident in the near term, with several tech holdings having contributed considerable alpha as AI-spending hopes have driven share prices higher.

Despite these strong returns, the managers have remained pragmatic, selling into the strength of their top performers to lock in profits and reduce single stock risk. In exchange, they have rotated the portfolio into better value ideas both within the tech sector, with similar AI exposure but not reliant on it, as well as to more defensive holdings elsewhere in the region. The managers have also reduced their level of net Gearing in order to take some risk off the table and give them headroom to add back again should a more compelling entry point become available.