Aberdeen Asia Focus outshines benchmark on Taiwanese technology stock

Aberdeen Asia Focus PLC on Thursday said it significantly outperformed its benchmark, as the company benefited from backing Taiwanese technology stocks.

The London-based, Asia-focused investment trust said net asset value per share at July 31 increased 21% to 460.05 pence from 381.72p a year earlier.

NAV total return was 22%, compared with 20% a year earlier. The trust's benchmark, the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Small Cap index, returned 9.5%.

Aberdeen Asia's performance during the year ended July 31 benefited from its high exposure to Taiwanese technology stocks. Primary contributors were Taiwan Union Technology, which rose more than 270% during the period, and Chroma ATE, a provider of testing equipment for advanced electronic and semiconductor components.

It said: "At the end of the financial year, Taiwan was our largest country exposure offering a particularly rich pool of high-quality smaller companies exposed to areas of significant growth within the technology and industrials sectors."

Meanwhile, Aberdeen Asia named Chinese companies NetEase Cloud Music and Yantai China Pet as primary detractors, as well as South Korean medical devices business Classys.

Aberdeen Asia noted India's more challenging market backdrop, as "earnings expectations moderated and foreign investors became increasingly selective after a prolonged period of healthy returns".

Aberdeen Asia declared four interim dividends during financial 2026, amounting to 6.44p per ordinary 5p share, up marginally from 6.43p a year earlier.

Chair Krishna Shanmuganathan said: "Asia continues to offer a broad opportunity set of innovative and entrepreneurial businesses, which often derive revenues from domestic demand and are relatively sheltered from global macro shifts. We remain optimistic about the prospects for Asian smaller companies, which are often under-researched and undervalued providing an ideal hunting ground for our manager to continue to seek further outperformance."

Shares in Aberdeen Asia Focus were down 1.7% at 426.72p per share on Thursday morning in London.

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