Coupland Cardiff launches India fund
London and Singapore based asset manager Coupland Cardiff has launched a fund investing in Indian subcontinent equities offering exposure to “some of the fastest economic growth in the world”.
The CC Indian Subcontinent fund will seek to benefit from the growth in domestic demand in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Myanmar.
The region represents 24% of the world’s population with a GDP of $2.84trn but has only a small weighting in global indices.
Led by Abhinav Mehra in Singapore and Andrew Draycott in the UK, the Irish Oeic long-only equity portfolio will have between 25 to 40 holdings. It will be index agnostic and focus on those high growth and high-quality companies that benefit from domestic growth and have strong corporate governance.
The focus on domestic demand means the company hopes it will be less affected by external trade influences. Growth drivers higlighted include political and economic reforms, the region’s proximity to China, access to big export markets and demonetisation in India which is creating a savings shift.
Richard Cardiff, chief exective of Coupland Cardiff, said: “The Indian subcontinent comprises countries with some of the fastest economic growth in the world, some of the youngest populations and rapidly growing consumption.”
“The companies we are looking at are non-cyclical – those having continued to grow in spite of a poor economic cycle and those that are leaders in their field with a growing market and pricing power. These companies will also benefit from a widening competitive advantage with scale.
“The Indian economy is growing at a rapid pace but it is still where China was 12 years ago. Bangladesh is where India was seven years ago so opportunity for further growth in the region over the coming years is clear.”
This is the eighth fund launched by the firm, it currently runs four focused on Asia and three dedicated to Japan.
This article first appeared in Investment Week
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