Mirae, Daiwa launch Asia-Pacific equity fund

Mirae Asset Global Investments, the international arm of Korea's Mirae Asset, has launched an Asia-Pacific equity fund that is co-managed by Japan’s Daiwa Asset Management.

The Mirae Next Asia Pacific Equity Fund is the first product co-managed by Daiwa and Mirae to be launched outside Japan and Korea. The two firms have been collaborating since 2010 and have launched 14 funds, which have only been sold in their respective home markets.

The firm is preparing to seek approval from Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission for retail distribution of the Luxembourg Ucits product. Similar preparations are under way for the fund to be sold in Europe, Japan and Korea, noted Rhee Jung-Ho, Hong Kong chief executive at Mirae Asset GI.

He said it was possible that Mirae Asset would launch more co-managed funds with Daiwa for offshore distribution. 

The managers of the new product are Masaki Takebayashi, senior portfolio manager at Daiwa AM, and An Joohee, senior portfolio manager at Mirae Asset.

Mirae cited its performance track record as the main reason it could compete in the very crowded Asian equities space. The Mirae Asset Asia Great Consumer Equity Fund managed by An recorded a 23.7% return since inception in June 2011, while its benchmark, the MSCI AC Asia ex-Japan, lost -5.04% over the same period. The Daiwa Japan Income Equity Fund run by Takebayashi has gained 103% since its inception in July 2005, against 44% for its benchmark, the Topix.  

The new product is a sub-fund of the Mirae Asset Global Discovery Fund Sicav, the umbrella for 21 equity and bond funds investing in single and regional markets and sectors. These include a China equity fund and global emerging markets consumer equity fund.

As of the end of July, Mirae Asset had $76 billion in AUM, 64% sourced from institutional investors, 24% from wholesale channels and the remainder in exchange-traded funds.