TOP

Matthews Emerging Markets Sustainable Future Fund
MASGX

The Matthews Asia ESG Fund won the inaugural 2021 UNCTAD Sustainable Emerging Market Fund Award. Press Release. Methodology.

Formerly known as the Matthews Asia ESG Fund.

Snapshot
  • Unconstrained strategy focused on companies that make a positive environmental, social and economic impact in emerging markets
  • All-cap portfolio with diversified emerging and frontier market exposures
  • Deep bottom-up fundamental approach that seeks to generate attractive long-term risk-adjusted returns by investing in well-governed companies

04/30/2015

Inception Date

4.55%

YTD Return

(as of 07/15/2024)

$13.11

NAV

(as of 07/15/2024)

-0.16

1 Day NAV Change

(as of 07/15/2024)

Objective

Long-term capital appreciation

Strategy

Under normal circumstances, the Matthews Emerging Markets Sustainable Future Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing at least 80% of its net assets, which include borrowings for investment purposes, in the common and preferred stocks of companies of any market capitalization located in emerging market countries that satisfy one or more of the Fund’s environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) standards. Emerging market countries generally include every country in the world except the United States, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and most of the countries in Western Europe. Certain emerging market countries may also be classified as “frontier” market countries, which are a subset of emerging market countries with newer or even less developed economies and markets, such as Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

Risks

Investments in emerging and frontier securities may involve risks such as social and political instability, market illiquidity, exchange-rate fluctuations, a high level of volatility and limited regulation. Additionally, investing in emerging and frontier markets countries are substantially smaller, less liquid and more volatile than securities markets in more developed markets. Matthews Emerging Markets Sustainable Future Fund’s consideration of ESG factors in making its investment decisions may impact the Fund’s relative investment performance positively or negatively.

These and other risks associated with investing in the Fund can be found in the prospectus.

Fund Facts
Inception Date 04/30/2015
Fund Assets $239.87 million (06/30/2024)
Currency USD
Ticker MASGX
Cusip 577-130-727
Portfolio Turnover 49.2%
Benchmark MSCI Emerging Markets Index
Geographic Focus Emerging Markets - Countries generally include every country in the world except the United States, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and most of the countries in Western Europe
Fees & Expenses
Gross Expense Ratio 1.23%

Performance

  • Monthly
  • Quarterly
  • Calendar Year
  • data_graph_selected Created with Sketch.
  • bar_graph_selected Created with Sketch.
As of 06/30/2024
Average Annual Total Returns
Name 1MO 3MO YTD 1YR 3YR 5YR 10YR Since Inception Inception Date
Matthews Emerging Markets Sustainable Future Fund - MASGX
04/30/2015
MASGX
0.56% 0.16% 1.04% 0.66% -3.07% 8.87% n.a. 6.94%
MSCI Emerging Markets Index
4.01% 5.12% 7.68% 12.98% -4.68% 3.49% n.a. 3.28%
As of 06/30/2024
Average Annual Total Returns
Name 1MO 3MO YTD 1YR 3YR 5YR 10YR Since Inception Inception Date
Matthews Emerging Markets Sustainable Future Fund - MASGX
04/30/2015
MASGX
0.56% 0.16% 1.04% 0.66% -3.07% 8.87% n.a. 6.94%
MSCI Emerging Markets Index
4.01% 5.12% 7.68% 12.98% -4.68% 3.49% n.a. 3.28%
For the years ended December 31st
Name 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016
Matthews Emerging Markets Sustainable Future Fund - MASGX
MASGX
7.83% -14.38% 11.76% 42.87% 12.55% -9.73% 33.79% -1.40%
MSCI Emerging Markets Index
10.27% -19.74% -2.22% 18.69% 18.88% -14.24% 37.75% 11.60%

Before July 29, 2022, the Fund was managed with a different investment strategy and may have achieved different performance results under its current investment strategy from the performance shown for periods before that date.

Source: BNY Mellon Investment Servicing (US) Inc. All performance is in US$.

Assumes reinvestment of all dividends and/or distributions before taxes. All performance quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate with market conditions so that when redeemed, shares may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the return figures quoted. Returns would have been lower if certain of the Fund’s fees and expenses had not been waived. Performance differences between the Institutional class and the Investor class may arise due to differences in fees charged to each class.

Additional performance, attribution, liquidity, value at risk (VaR), security classification and holdings information is available on request for certain time periods.

Growth of a Hypothetical $10,000 Investment Since Inception

(as of 06/30/2024)

Source: BNY Mellon Investment Servicing (US) Inc. All performance is in US$.

The performance data and graph do not reflect the deduction of taxes that a shareholder would pay on dividends, capital gain distributions or redemption of fund shares.

Ratings

  • OVERALL
  • out of 718 funds
  • 3 YEAR
  • out of 718 funds
  • 5 YEAR
  • out of 646 funds
  • 1 YEAR
  • 4th
  • 746 out of 8 funds
  • 3 YEAR
  • 2nd
  • 203 out of 6 funds
  • 5 YEAR
  • 1st
  • 23 out of 4 funds
  • SINCE INCEPTION
  • 1st
  • 3 out of 440 funds

Ratings agency calculation methodology

Portfolio Managers

Vivek  Tanneeru photo
Vivek Tanneeru

Lead Manager

Inbok  Song photo
Inbok Song

Co-Manager

Alex  Zarechnak photo
Alex Zarechnak

Co-Manager

Portfolio Characteristics

(as of 06/30/2024)
Fund Benchmark
Number of Positions 54 1,330
Weighted Average Market Cap $25.1 billion $157.1 billion
Active Share 98.4 n.a.
P/E using FY1 estimates 17.3x 12.9x
P/E using FY2 estimates 13.6x 11.2x
Price/Cash Flow 10.7 8.2
Price/Book 2.5 1.8
Return On Equity 13.4 15.9
EPS Growth (3 Yr) 27.1% 18.8%

Sources: Factset Research Systems, Inc.

Risk Metrics (3 Yr Return)

(as of 06/30/2024)
1.56%
Alpha
0.94
Beta
87.43%
Upside Capture
88.13%
Downside Capture
-0.32
Sharpe Ratio
0.17
Information Ratio
9.76%
Tracking Error
74.84

Fund Risk Metrics are reflective of Investor share class.

Sources: Zephyr StyleADVISOR

Top 10 Holdings

(as of 06/30/2024)
Name Sector Country % Net Assets
Meituan Class B Consumer Discretionary China/Hong Kong 6.4
Bandhan Bank, Ltd. Financials India 6.3
Shriram Finance, Ltd. Financials India 6.0
Full Truck Alliance Co., Ltd. Industrials China/Hong Kong 5.4
Micron Technology, Inc. Information Technology United States 4.0
JD Health International, Inc. Consumer Staples China/Hong Kong 4.0
Legend Biotech Corp. Health Care China/Hong Kong 4.0
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, Ltd. Financials China/Hong Kong 3.7
Indus Towers, Ltd. Communication Services India 3.2
Samsung SDI Co., Ltd., Pfd. Information Technology South Korea 3.1
TOTAL 46.1

Top 10 holdings may combine more than one security from the same issuer and related depositary receipts.
Source: BNY Mellon Investment Servicing (US) Inc.

Portfolio Breakdown (%)

(as of 06/30/2024)
  • Sector Allocation
  • Country Allocation
  • Market Cap Exposure
Sector Fund Benchmark Difference
Financials 25.6 21.9 3.7
Information Technology 24.4 25.1 -0.7
Industrials 15.1 6.9 8.2
Consumer Discretionary 13.0 12.3 0.7
Health Care 6.6 3.2 3.4
Consumer Staples 6.5 5.2 1.3
Communication Services 4.6 8.9 -4.3
Real Estate 4.0 1.5 2.5
Materials 1.0 6.9 -5.9
Utilities 0.3 3.0 -2.7
Energy 0.0 5.2 -5.2
Liabilities in Excess of Cash and Other Assets -1.1 0.0 -1.1

Sector data based on MSCI’s revised Global Industry Classification Standards. For more details, visit www.msci.com.

Country Fund Benchmark Difference
China/Hong Kong 35.9 25.2 10.7
India 24.4 19.2 5.2
Taiwan 9.9 19.3 -9.4
South Korea 7.9 12.2 -4.3
Brazil 5.1 4.2 0.9
United States 4.0 0.0 4.0
Poland 3.2 1.0 2.2
South Africa 2.2 3.0 -0.8
Saudi Arabia 2.1 3.9 -1.8
Romania 1.7 0.0 1.7
Turkey 1.6 0.8 0.8
Vietnam 1.3 0.0 1.3
Jordan 1.0 0.0 1.0
Bangladesh 0.4 0.0 0.4
Chile 0.3 0.4 -0.1
Mexico 0.0 2.1 -2.1
Indonesia 0.0 1.6 -1.6
Malaysia 0.0 1.4 -1.4
Thailand 0.0 1.3 -1.3
United Arab Emirates 0.0 1.1 -1.1
Qatar 0.0 0.8 -0.8
Kuwait 0.0 0.7 -0.7
Greece 0.0 0.5 -0.5
Philippines 0.0 0.5 -0.5
Peru 0.0 0.3 -0.3
Hungary 0.0 0.2 -0.2
Colombia 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Czech Republic 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Egypt 0.0 0.1 -0.1
Liabilities in Excess of Cash and Other Assets -1.1 0.0 -1.1

Not all countries are included in the benchmark index(es).

Equity market cap of issuer Fund Benchmark Difference
Mega Cap (over $25B) 21.7 57.4 -35.7
Large Cap ($10B-$25B) 17.0 22.1 -5.1
Mid Cap ($3B-$10B) 40.5 19.7 20.8
Small Cap (under $3B) 21.9 0.8 21.1
Liabilities in Excess of Cash and Other Assets -1.1 0.0 -1.1

Source: FactSet Research Systems.

Percentage values in data are rounded to the nearest tenth of one percent, so the values may not sum to 100% due to rounding. Percentage values may be derived from different data sources and may not be consistent with other Fund literature.

Portfolio Breakdown benchmark reflects the MSCI Emerging Markets Index as of 6/30/23.

Distributions

Record Date Ex, Pay and
Reinvest Date
Ordinary
Income
Short Term
Capital Gains
Long Term
Capital Gains
Total Distributions
Per Share
% of NAV Nondividend Distribution (Return of Capital)
12/13/2023 12/14/2023 $0.25011 $0.17470 $0.51859 $0.94340 7.2% N.A.
12/13/2022 12/14/2022 $0.04203 $0.06010 $0.57198 $0.67411 4.9% N.A.
12/14/2021 12/15/2021 $0.00000 $0.70374 $0.64204 $1.34578 7.8% N.A.
12/15/2020 12/16/2020 $0.00950 $0.39961 $0.43641 $0.84552 6.0% N.A.
12/16/2019 12/17/2019 $0.03010 $0.00000 $0.12078 $0.15088 1.4% N.A.

 

There is no guarantee that the Fund will pay or continue to pay distributions. 

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate with changing market conditions so that shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost.

Commentary

Period ended June 30, 2024

Market Environment

  • Emerging markets performed largely in line with our expectations in the second quarter, with Taiwan, India and China leading the way, while Mexico and Brazil underperformed. Inflation on the whole is not as high as in developed markets and in the absence of rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve, a lot of positive performance was driven by fundamentals and earnings growth.
  • The expansion of the artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain, led by large U.S. tech firms, was another supportive theme, particularly for semiconductor hubs in emerging markets. We also saw volatility in India and Mexico following their elections, triggered by Prime Minister Modi’s failure to win a majority and Claudia Sheinbaum’s landslide victory—sparking worries among investors that the economic status quo in both countries could be challenged.
  • By region, Asia led performance in emerging markets. Taiwan was buoyed by demand for hardware from the U.S. while India’s markets recovered from their negative reaction to the election result when it became clear Modi would form a coalition with allies. Indian local bonds also had their inaugural inclusion in the JPMorgan Government Bond Index-Emerging Markets (GBI-EM) index, which is expected to add significant foreign investor inflows in coming quarters. Chinese equities, meanwhile, performed well despite ongoing economic challenges, helped by the government’s attempts to stabilize the real estate market and a cyclical pickup in some sectors.
  • In Latin America, higher-for-longer U.S. interest rates remained a headwind. In Mexico, though the long-term structural story remains intact, uncertainty over the potential reformist agenda of the new administration pulled markets down. High rates also hampered Brazil and market sentiment was negatively impacted by the corporate interventions of the government and concerns over its fiscal management.

Contributors and Detractors

  • For the quarter ended June 30, 2024, the Matthews Emerging Markets Sustainable Future Fund returned 0.16%, (Investor Class) and 0.24% (Institutional Class) while its benchmark, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, returned 5.12% over the same period.
  • On a country basis, the top three contributors to relative performance were India due to stock selection, and Mexico and Indonesia due to zero allocation. The top three detractors were China/Hong Kong, Taiwan and Brazil due to stock selection.
  • On a sector basis, the top three contributors to relative performance were financials and real estate due to stock selection and materials due to an underweight allocation. The top three detractors were information technology (IT), consumer staples and industrials due to stock selection.
  • The largest contributors to absolute performance included Shriram Finance, an Indian financial services provider, Meituan, China’s largest food delivery service and internet platform company, and Indus Towers, an Indian telecommunication infrastructure company. The top three detractors to performance included YDUQS Participacoes, a Brazilian on-campus and distance-learning education company, JD Health International, a Chinese online healthcare platform, and Flat Glass Group, a Chinese glass products manufacturer.

Outlook

  • Post-COVID growth in emerging markets is starting to come through and broaden out and we think this will pave the way for consistent earnings growth over the next few years. We also see more upside to equity performance driven by North Asia and underpinned by earnings growth, a widening of AI-related adoption and improving value in certain markets.
  • Emerging markets, particularly those in Latin America, should also benefit from the onset of a monetary easing cycle in the U.S. and the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar that would likely bring, in our view. In India, we think the market will continue to progress though it is expensive. Under the new coalition government, we may see spending on growth spread out beyond infrastructure and CapEx which could yield more opportunities in consumption.
  • In China, we are cognizant to potential catalysts for growth and to potential headwinds, such as increased volatility as we approach the U.S. president election in November.
  • Finally, we view sustainable investing as a synonym for long-term investing. Emerging markets, we believe, are a key destination for sustainable investment themes that offer attractive opportunities for alpha generation.

 

View the Fund’s Top 10 holdings as of June 30, 2024. Current and future holdings are subject to change and risk.

Average Annual Total Returns - MASGX as of 06/30/2024
1YR 3YR 5YR 10YR Since Inception Inception Date
0.66% -3.07% 8.87% N.A. 6.94% 04/30/2015

All performance quoted is past performance and is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate with changing market conditions so that shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the return figures quoted. Returns would have been lower if certain of the Fund's fees and expenses had not been waived. For the Fund's most recent month-end performance visit matthewsasia.com

Fees & Expenses
Gross Expense Ratio 1.23%

Investments in emerging and frontier securities may involve risks such as social and political instability, market illiquidity, exchange-rate fluctuations, a high level of volatility and limited regulation. Additionally, investing in emerging and frontier markets countries are substantially smaller, less liquid and more volatile than securities markets in more developed markets. Matthews Emerging Markets Sustainable Future Fund’s consideration of ESG factors in making its investment decisions may impact the Fund’s relative investment performance positively or negatively.

 

Visit our Glossary of Terms page for definitions and additional information.

Index Definitions

The information contained herein has been derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate at the time of compilation, but no representation or warranty (express or implied) is made as to the accuracy or completeness of any of this information. Neither the funds nor the Investment Advisor accept any liability for losses either direct or consequential caused by the use of this information.

The views and opinions in the commentary were as of the report date, subject to change and may not reflect current views. They are not guarantees of performance or investment results and should not be taken as investment advice. Investment decisions reflect a variety of factors, and the managers reserve the right to change their views about individual stocks, sectors, and the markets at any time. As a result, the views expressed should not be relied upon as a forecast of the Fund's future investment intent. It should not be assumed that any investment will be profitable or will equal the performance of any securities or any sectors mentioned herein. The information does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any securities mentioned.