KLS Corinium Emerging Markets All Weather

Lead PM Ed Butchart (March 2020 update) - While the data for COVID-19 transmissions/infection is certainly improving in Asia, there is a risk that is starts to spread more widely into emerging markets where public health infrastructure is less equipped to deal with it. As a result Ed has significantly reduced exposure to India in particular which is now just 5% of the portfolio. Given the oil price issues Ed has also scaled back exposure to Russia however here he also expects a bounce when oil finds a floor. He is also cognisant that equity markets more broadly could bounce hard given that they are technically oversold and would likely take cheer from signs that transmissions are slowing in Europe and the US. The fund has significantly outperformed EM both MTD and YTD thanks to an aggressive scaling back of the long book (now just 35% gross long) and a scaling up of hedges leading to a net exposure in the mid-teens.