The changes we've made to the Favourite funds list - October 2025
Archived article: Please note that tax, investment, pension and ISA rules can change and the information and any views contained in this article may now be inaccurate.
We have added the FSSA Asia Focus fund to our Favourite funds because of its disciplined investment approach, which has been honed over the years by the fund’s experienced team head, Martin Lau. Martin began his investment career nearly three decades ago when he joined, what was then, First State Investments in 2002, learning under the tutelage of the well-respected Angus Tulloch prior to managing his own strategies under the newly-formed FSSA brand in 2015. Co-managers Rizi Mohanty and George Pickard support him, along with FSSA’s broader analyst team who focus on researching Emerging Market Asian equities.
At the heart of the fund’s investment philosophy is a commitment to ‘quality businesses’. The team therefore seek companies with strong management teams and robust balance sheets. They assess management teams based on their alignment with all shareholders and their track record of effective capital allocation. From a financial standpoint, they favour businesses with pricing power, competitive advantages, strong cash generation and low debt to ensure that the companies are able to maintain sustainable growth.
The resulting portfolio is long-term and high conviction, typically consisting of 40-70 companies and will look different to the benchmark from both a sector and geographic perspective. The team applies exclusionary screens, avoiding investments in coal, tobacco, weapons, and other controversial sectors. Details of these exclusions are outlined in the fund’s SDR Consumer Facing Disclosure.