Harris boosts frontier exposure after adding Vietnam equity fund

Henderson head of multi-manager Mark Harris has taken a £16m stake in a Vietnam equity fund as he ramps up his exposure to frontier markets.

Harris and co-manager Craig Heron have built up a large stake in Dragon Capital’s Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited, a Cayman-based vehicle listed on Irish Stock Exchange.

The stake equates to nearly 3% of the duo’s Henderson Multi-Manager Active fund, as well as 5% of the Tactical and Asian portfolios.

Harris’ Vietnamese equity position has taken the weighting to frontier markets to 13% of the group’s flagship MM Active vehicle. He also has African exposure through the Imara Africa Opportunities vehicle, as well as the Franklin Templeton MENA fund.

“We are long believers in Asia being the structural winner in the long-term, but as fund managers our job is to find cheap assts. As the only Asian market to strongly underperform, it certainly fits the bill,” Harris said.

“Vietnam can share in the Asian growth story, but at a P/E of about seven times it is currently very cheap – especially considering it has twice hit 35 times. Earnings growth is expected to come in at 20% as well.”