sansione
19 Aug 2015
Re: Declining badly now. I am referring more to the performance of the Net Asset Value, not the share price. NAV performance has been terrible over the last two years both against indices and peer group ( Scottish Oriental etc. ) I would imagine that part of the increase in the discount is as a consequence of the poor NAV performance.
Richygm
18 Aug 2015
Re: Declining badly now. To be fair to them, the trust now trades on a 13% discount, whereas it used to trade on a premium, so 13% of underperformance is due to investors not wanting to buy into the sector, presumably because of the China problem. But yes, fund management, is a racket.
sansione
18 Aug 2015
Re: Declining badly now. Another year of serious underperformance was completed on 31 July. Divvent Argie`s point re the blind following of a previously successful formula is very well made. Sticking to the same old stocks that have been underperforming for two or three years is not working. Change is required!! Sorry to bang on re a previous point, but, change is also required in the board as the chairman sails into his 21st year and his cosy little sinicure continues, now however accompanied by two consecutive years of dreadful performance. His only sensible decision is that he has never owned any shares which currently is doing him no harm!! We have a very expensive 7 person board ( ludicrous for an investment trust ) including the CEO of Aberdeen who has also been on the board for 20 years and should not have been there in the first place as an executive of the management company. The whole thing is just too cosy. Very surprised that the institutional shareholders have not put on pressure from a corporate governance viewpoint to have the board refreshed.
Richygm
17 Aug 2015
Declining badly now. Probably China hard landing fears. The only big buy today was a share by-back. (Though, of course, the fund is as a sizeable discount.) Is anybody else hanging on? Or are all of you gone?
pharmaspecialist
03 Aug 2015
Re: Reason for declining performance? Sorry, in my previous post please read Christopher Wong in place of Christopher Young. Wish they wouldn't choose fund managers with such similar names!
pharmaspecialist
25 Jun 2015
Reason for declining performance? A paid for analyst report from Edison on one of AAS's competitors published today confirms AAS's recently disappointing performance. AAS was 8th out of 15 comparable trust over 3 years and 15th out of 16 over 1 year (beating only another of Abredeen's Asian trusts). AAS had been at or near the top of the performance tables for many years so I investigated whether there was any reason for this decline or is it just a hiccup? I found that Aberdeen seems to have quietly changed the manager of AAS. The high profile manager, Hugh Young, who built up AAS's reputation for outperformance, appears to have been replaced by Christopher Young whose photo now appears in place of Hugh Young's on the AAS page of the Aberdeen web site. Hugh Young still works in a senior position at Aberdeen and I expect still has some input to AAS, but the apparent change of manager to Christopher Young may well explain the recent decline in performance. I bought AAS on the basis of Hugh Young's record as a fund manager so I am now selling.
sansione
18 Jun 2015
Re: One of my better stocks And receiving £4 million a year for their services!!
divvent argie
18 Jun 2015
Re: One of my better stocks Take a look at the chart since 10/3/98 - sentiment has changed already. Managers who blindly follow a formula that has worked in the past but isn't working now are not really managing. That's the point.
fldc
17 Jun 2015
One of my better stocks I've held this stock since 2005, and it's roughly quadrupled since then. It's at a pretty good discount at the moment so I'm buying while it's not overpriced. Get in there before sentiment changes!!
divvent argie
17 Jun 2015
Re: aas A good clear out is needed. I hope Aberdeen monitor these bb's so they can see what their clients think.
sansione
17 Jun 2015
Re: aas A little harsh. The long term record has been very strong and it is the past two years that have been weak.It looks as though their style of minimal turnover has turned against them as many of the large holdings that have been in the portfolio for many years have disappointed. A refreshment of the portfolio appears to be long overdue. Also a removal of the chairman and of Martin Gilbert, both of whom are well past their sell-by-date!!
divvent argie
17 Jun 2015
Re: aas Agreed the performance is awful - what are we paying these people for? Clearly it isn't their expertise. Can't understand why the manager hasn't been given the push. Like many I'm too far down to bail out now so I'm hoping either for a turn around (probably long-term) or some short term action from Aberdeen management to correct this blemish on their reputation.
sansione
17 Jun 2015
Re: aas While it looks tempting, the performance has been deteriorating for some time. If you look at the April Factsheet, 6 month, one year and three year performance of NAV relative to the indices is steadily worsening and the share price performance relative to indices and to the company`s nearest competitor, Scottish Oriental, is awful. There has to be some doubt about their policy of sticking with the same portfolio year after year.
glasgowboy
17 Jun 2015
aas just topped up as trading at good discountTopped up as trading at a good discount nice long termer++-
sansione
22 May 2015
peer group performance Just checked against Scottish Oriental over past 12 months.Aberdeeen Asian Smaller Share Price + 0.4% NAV + 7.7%Scottish Oriental Share Price + 11% NAV + 14.4%.
