Asian Opportunities Equity Fund

Capitale a rischio. I rendimenti passati non sono indicativi dei risultati presenti o futuri e non dovrebbero essere l'unico fattore considerato per selezionare un prodotto o una strategia.

I fondi elencati non rappresentano una lista esaustiva dei fondi disponibili. Si prega di visitare il sito internet www.funds.troweprice.com per accedere all’intera gamma di fondi offerta da T. Rowe Price, che include quei fondi che promuovono criteri ambientali e sociali nel loro processo di investimento. Per informazioni aggiornate su qualsiasi strategia di investimento di T. Rowe Price s prega di leggere il KID e il prospetto dello specifico fondo.

Panoramica

Manager's Outlook

We remain constructive on the medium- to long-term outlook for Asia ex-Japan equities. Most Asian economies are on a steady path to more normalized economic activity and north Asia has broadly picked up the pace compared with the rest of the region. In addition, demand for goods from these north Asian economies is driven by the West where economic activity is gaining traction.

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We believe that domestic demand in Asia ex-Japan is holding up relatively well despite the uneven recovery of its economies. While China has experienced a V-shaped path to recovery, other Asian developing countries were stalled by the resurgence of coronavirus cases, the emergence of new variants and the impact of their virus containment measures as many had relied on prolonged restrictions on mobility rather than on an effective test-based strategy. Broadly speaking, however, the relative deterioration in fiscal and current account balances across the region has been more manageable compared with other parts of the world.

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In terms of valuation, while there are pockets of excessive optimism in some sectors, we believe that the valuations of high-quality growth and cyclical growth businesses in Asia ex-Japan remain in line with historic levels.

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Overall, we expect healthier earnings growth in 2021 and beyond, although the magnitude of earnings improvement of Asian companies will depend on the pace of economic normalization. Hence, there may be risks of earnings downgrades should the success of the vaccines fall behind expectations.

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We remain cognizant of other risks. We believe that inflation appears to be under control in Asia and hence is not a source of immediate concern. We recognize that the vaccination drives in the developing world remain challenging. The slow progress of vaccination programs in some Asian countries may affect these economies more severely compared with others in the region. Delays in the distribution of vaccines could lead to persistent infections and prolonged restrictions could retard growth.

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Geopolitical tensions remain a risk. While we may see some de-escalation of fractious relations between the U.S. and China under President Biden's administration, we believe that technological decoupling between the two countries is unlikely be reversed.

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We continue to build this portfolio from the bottom up and while we take the macro environment into account, our philosophy and process remain squarely centered on fundamental stock selection. We are confident that we can continue to identify the best quality businesses in the region, supported by our Asia-based equity analysts and a global fundamental research platform along with our disciplined investment approach.

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Strategy

Fund Summary

Sfruttiamo la ricerca fondamentale per effettuare un'analisi dettagliata delle società e delle dinamiche settoriali. L'enfasi sulla qualità ci porta verso aziende solitamente caratterizzate da un'alta redditività del capitale impiegato e buone possibilità di conseguire performance costanti. Lo studio disciplinato delle valutazioni è il fulcro del nostro approccio. La promozione delle caratteristiche ambientali e/o sociali si realizza attraverso l'impegno del fondo a mantenere almeno il 10% del valore del proprio portafoglio investito in Investimenti Sostenibili, come definiti dalla SFDR. Inoltre, applichiamo uno screening responsabile proprietario (lista di esclusione). Il fondo non è vincolato a benchmark, ma questo viene utilizzato solo a scopo di comparazione performance.

Performance - Al netto delle commissioni

I rendimenti passati non costituiscono una previsione di quelli futuri.

30-giu-2021 - Eric C. Moffett, Portfolio Manager,

Le azioni asiatiche (escluso il Giappone) hanno perso terreno a giugno, poiché i timori d’inflazione, l’aumento dei casi di coronavirus e i segnali di una svolta restrittiva lanciati inaspettatamente dalla Federal Reserve statunitense hanno alimentato l’avversione al rischio. A livello di portafoglio, la nostra selezione di titoli sul mercato cinese, in particolare l'assenza di NIO, fabbricante di automobili specializzato in veicoli elettrici, ha frenato la performance. Riteniamo che vi siano altre società nella catena di fornitura con profili migliori sul fronte degli utili e del rapporto rischio/rendimento rispetto ai fabbricanti di apparecchiature originali per veicoli elettrici. Owning Gree Electric, uno dei maggiori produttori cinesi di sistemi di condizionamento dell'aria, è stato un altro titolo che ha penalizzato la performance. La quotazione ha continuato a scendere in seguito all’interruzione dell’attività causata dal decumulo delle scorte, dalla riforma dei canali di vendita e dalla pandemia da coronavirus. Crediamo, tuttavia, che Gree abbia ormai superato la fase peggiore dei tagli agli utili. Viceversa, la nostra esposizione sovrappesata al mercato delle Filippine, che ha registrato una sovraperformance, ha favorito i rendimenti. Jollibee Foods, proprietaria di una catena di ristoranti fast-food nel paese, ha fornito un apporto positivo in seguito alla pubblicazione dei risultati della società, che hanno evidenziato un margine dell’attività del mercato interno superiore alle attese. Anche la nostra selezione titoli nel settore informatico è risultata positiva per il portafoglio. TSMC ha riportato utili per il primo trimestre superiori alle stime di consenso, sostenendo la nostra tesi secondo cui l’attività di produzione dei semiconduttori è entrata in una fase di crescita strutturale e più redditizia.  

30-giu-2021 - Eric C. Moffett, Portfolio Manager,

Abbiamo un’esposizione sovrappesata al comparto immobiliare, dove siamo concentrati sull’acquisto di società che probabilmente beneficeranno del consolidamento del settore. Ad esempio, crediamo che China Overseas Land & Investment (COLI), una delle società in portafoglio con la situazione patrimoniale più solida, sarà in grado di guadagnare quote di mercato anche con le nuove regole sulla leva finanziaria introdotte dal governo. Deteniamo anche la società di gestione immobiliare China Overseas Property Holdings, consociata di COLI, che consideriamo una società compounder caratterizzata da stabilità e meno soggetta ai rischi legati alla politica rispetto alle società immobiliari.  

30-giu-2021 - Eric C. Moffett, Portfolio Manager,

Le Filippine sono la nostra principale posizione sovrappesata a livello geografico risultante dal nostro approccio d’investimento bottom-up. Non siamo guidati da una visione macroeconomica. Deteniamo Jollibee Foods, di cui apprezziamo la capacità di generare flussi di cassa sul mercato interno. Una spinta propulsiva potrebbe provenire anche da una svolta nell'attività estera. La società ha infatti rilevato la catena di fast-food Smashburger e The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf e ha incrementato la propria partecipazione nella catena di ristoranti dim sum Tim Ho Wan, con l’obiettivo di diventare uno dei primi cinque ristoranti fast-food al mondo. Deteniamo inoltre una posizione in Philippine Seven, che gestisce la catena di negozi di quartiere 7-Eleven, per la capacità di generare consistenti flussi di cassa.  

30-giu-2021 - Eric C. Moffett, Portfolio Manager,

In the education sector, we saw heightened policy uncertainty in the quarter as China is framing new rules to cover the private tutoring industry. We decided to sell shares of TAL Education, an after-school tutoring provider, due to the possible adverse earnings impact and the disruption to business operations of a potential ban. About 80% of TAL's revenues are derived from kindergarten to grade 9 (K-9) level tutoring, which may be the subject of the potential ban.

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We shifted our education position to New Oriental Education, a well-run provider of tutoring services with net cash in its balance sheet. We expect it to fare better than TAL should a ban be imposed given that it has more high school students and the regulatory changes will focus on those from lower levels. The new rules aim to ease pressure on children and lower family living costs.

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We consolidated our holdings in the household durable names over the quarter. Hence, we sold shares of Hisense Home Appliances Group, one of the largest white goods companies in China.

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We decided to switch to shares of Gree Electric where we had more conviction and see more potential upside in the stock given its growth prospects, dominant market share and improving capital allocation.

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In e-commerce, we bought shares of Meituan, a platform providing services such as food delivery, as we diversified our exposure in this space. The company reported solid first-quarter results and food delivery profit continued to improve with scale and beat expectations. We continue to own Alibaba Group, the country's dominant internet platform.
We sold POSCO, South Korea's largest steelmaker, as our investment thesis has played out and we see limited potential upside. While the supply and demand dynamics remain favorable, we expect steel prices to peak in the next few quarters.
We locked in gains in conglomerate Jardine Matheson, selling its shares following a strong run since we initiated our position.

We bought shares of Hongfa Technology, a Chinese maker of relays used in autos, appliances, EV, and smart meters which we see as a share gainer in a growing industry, supported by its cost advantage and fast response ability. We view this stock as a quality, long-term growth story with an undiscounted upside margin.
Within the insurance sector, we own AIA, life insurer with a unique footprint in southeast Asia and a growing China business, a strong management team and sound capital position.

We sold shares of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing as Hong Kong's only securities and derivatives exchange and the sole operator of its clearing houses reported a stellar set of quarterly results that likely represent a short-term cyclical peak, in our view.��
We hold Infosys, a software services firm in India, which is seen as a beneficiary of the global recovery.

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This quarter, we sold shares of TSMC, the world's biggest dedicated semiconductor foundry in terms of capacity, and Samsung Electronics, one of the world's largest memory chip manufacturer, following their substantial share price gains last year.� While Samsung's quarterly results beat market consensus, we believe there are indications that we may be nearing the peak of the current upcycle for Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chips. �DRAM is the type of memory chip that saves data when a device's power is turned on.

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We bought shares of Vanguard International, a Taiwan-based company that focuses on 8-inch wafer fabrication foundry services. We view it as a well-managed company with good corporate governance and steady dividend growth over time. Over the longer term, 8-inch wafer supply may be tight owing to limited incremental 8-inch wafer capacity expansion mainly due to the lack of depreciated tools in the market. Moreover, we believe Vanguard may be less affected by U.S.-China trade tensions which centers more on leading-edge technology.
At the stock level, we bought shares of HKT Trust as we like the Hong Kong telecommunication company's growth prospects and high dividend yield. We view HKT Trust as a defensive stock and its bond-like nature, high-quality mobile subscriber base who are the first to adopt 5G, and strong balance sheet support our position in this stock.

30-giu-2021 - Eric C. Moffett, Portfolio Manager,

Shares of Songcheng Performance Development, one of the better-managed, show-based theme park operators with a growing footprint and good value-for-money proposition, lagged following the sharp gains in the first quarter and last year. The flare-up in coronavirus cases in Guangdong worried retail investors, dragging down the stock. We believe that the latest spate of coronavirus cases is a temporary headwind for the company. Songcheng posted a net profit in the first quarter of 2021 and 2020 even as its parks were shut from late January to mid-June last year and opened at partial capacity thereafter depending on government restrictions. The company managed to achieve a profit due to its high-margin business model and cost-saving initiatives. We continue to believe that Songcheng will benefit from recovering domestic travel demand. Its capacity expansion will also drive earnings growth over the next two to three years. Its newly opened Shanghai Park is expected by the management to be profitable in its first year of operation based purely on individual local customers.

Shares of Gree Electric Appliances, one of the largest air conditioner manufacturers in China, fell after two quarters of gains following the disruption in its business last year due to destocking, channel reform and the coronavirus pandemic. We believe that Gree has seen the worst of earnings cuts and that earnings will likely improve due to the company's growth potential, dominant market share and the upgrade trend in consumption.
Not owning Evergreen Marine hurt returns as the container shipping company's quarterly earnings significantly outpaced consensus estimates due to the increase in freight rates and better operating expense controls. The management attributed the freight rates rise to substantial demand coupled with a supply shortage. �

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Our holdings in Taiwan include semiconductor foundries such as TSMC, which makes almost all of the world's most sophisticated chips and many of the simpler ones, and among the non-technology stocks, we own Chailease Holding, a leasing company with a high quality franchise in Taiwan and an increasing China and southeast Asian business. We believe they will likely benefit from the cyclical recovery after COVID-19.
Owning Jollibee Foods, owner of a chain of fast-food restaurants in the Philippines and overseas including U.S.-based chains Smashburger and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (CBTL), was beneficial as shares advanced following the company's first-quarter results that showed a better-than-expected domestic business margin. In June, Jollibee entered into a joint venture with Yoshinoya Holdings to open 50 branches in the Philippines. Jollibee is counting on Yoshinoya's potential for delivery services amid restrictions on restaurants' dining capacity due to COVID-19.

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We continue to like Jollibee given its cash-generative domestic business where it has the dominant market share and the prospects of a sales recovery possibly in 2022. The risk of Smashburger and CBTL weighing on profitability has substantially decreased as they are almost breaking even.
In addition to Songcheng Performance and Gree Electric Appliances, our avoidance of NIO, a Chinese automobile manufacturer specializing in electric vehicles (EVs), diminished returns. NIO posted double-digit returns in June after a share price correction in the first five months of the year following a share price surge in 2020 due to speculative fervor from retail investors. We continue to believe that there is irrational exuberance over the prospects of EVs, resulting in demanding valuations within the sector. In our view, some companies in the supply chain have better earnings and risk/reward profile than the EV original equipment manufacturers.

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Not owning Li Ning,� one of China's largest local sportswear brand companies, crimped relative returns as it expects strong revenue growth in 2021 as part of a post-pandemic recovery and following the low base in the first half of 2020. The company plans to add another 100 stores in 2021 and build a supply center to improve its sourcing cability.
In this space, we own quality Chinese pharmaceutical names with favorable growth prospects, but their share prices lagged during the quarter. They include Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine, a high-quality company in the country's fast-growing oncology market, and Sino Biopharmaceutical, one of China's leading generic drug companies that is also penetrating the oncology market. We believe Sino Biopharmaceutical has one of the strongest sales team among pharmaceutical companies in China along with an efficient research and development system.

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Not owning Wuxi Biologics (Cayman) detracted from performance as the stock was boosted by the company's positive 2021 sales growth guidance during its investor day. Wuxi's stock price surged more than 200% last year and rose sharply in the year to date.

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Jiangsu Hengrui shares weighed on relative returns in reaction to the latest result of the government's new centralized drug procurement program. The procurement mechanism was launched in late 2018 and drug makers substantially cut prices to be eligible for large-volume procurement led by the government to ease the public's medical burdens. This year, the focus was on injectable medications that are commonly used for intensive care and treatment of severe symptoms. Hengrui lost its bid to sell one of its drugs under the program, which negatively affected sales growth forecast this year. However, we continue to like the company's innovative portfolio and drug pipeline. Hengrui started as a local state-owned enterprise and has transformed itself over time into an innovative research and development firm focusing on developing better and new drugs.
LG Uplus, a South Korean mobile company that operates in a three-player market, added value. The company reported a strong quarterly performance, driven by its mobile revenue acceleration due to subscriber growth and migration towards higher 5G packages. On the fixed line front, higher revenues from its smart home business unit that provides Internet Protocol television (IPTV) and ultra-fast home internet services helped along with better controls on marketing expenses. We view LG Uplus as a market share gainer that will likely benefit from improving mobile competition. Its free cash flow is expected to improve as it is past the peak of its capex cycle.

Sea Limited, an internet platform provider domiciled in Singapore and whose e-commerce business Shopee is gaining market share in Southeast Asia, was beneficial. Its revenue guidance significantly surpassed consensus estimates. We think Sea Limited is well positioned to grow market share in the Southeast Asian online gaming and e-commerce market, especially given the benign competitive environment compared to China.

La performance passata non è un indicatore affidabile della performance futura.

I Fondi sono comparti della SICAV T. Rowe Price Funds, una società di investimento lussemburghese a capitale variabile registrata presso la Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier e qualificata come organismo di investimento collettivo in valori mobiliari (“OICVM”). I dettagli completi degli obiettivi, delle politiche di investimento e dei rischi si trovano nel prospetto disponibile con i documenti contenenti le informazioni chiave per gli investitori e/o i documenti contenenti le informazioni chiave (KID) in inglese e in una lingua ufficiale delle giurisdizioni in cui i Fondi sono registrati. vendita al pubblico, unitamente all'atto costitutivo e alle relazioni annuali e semestrali (collettivamente “Documenti del Fondo”). Qualsiasi decisione di investimento dovrà essere presa sulla base dei Documenti del Fondo, disponibili gratuitamente presso il rappresentante locale, l'agente di pagamento/informazione locale o presso i distributori autorizzati. Possono inoltre essere reperiti insieme a un riepilogo dei diritti degli investitori in inglese sul sito www.troweprice.com. La Società di Gestione si riserva il diritto di rescindere gli accordi di marketing.

Le classi di azioni con copertura (indicate con "h") utilizzano tecniche di investimento per mitigare il rischio valutario tra la valuta o le valute di investimento sottostanti del fondo e la valuta della classe di azioni con copertura. I relativi costi saranno a carico della classe di azioni e non vi è alcuna garanzia che tale copertura sia efficace.

Prima di decidere di investire nel fondo, è necessario leggere il documento/prospetto di offerta (compresi gli obiettivi di investimento, le politiche e le eventuali avvertenze sui rischi) che sono disponibili e possono essere ottenuti presso qualsiasi distributore nominato.

I titoli specifici identificati e descritti in questo sito web non rappresentano tutti i titoli acquistati, venduti o consigliati per il comparto e non si deve supporre che i titoli identificati e discussi siano stati o saranno redditizi.

Un elenco completo delle Classi di Azioni attualmente emesse, comprese le Categorie a distribuzione, con copertura e ad accumulazione, può essere ottenuto, gratuitamente e su richiesta, presso la sede legale della Società.

Benchmark: gli investitori possono utilizzare il benchmark per confrontare la performance del fondo. Il benchmark è stato selezionato perché è simile all'universo d'investimento utilizzato dal gestore degli investimenti e funge quindi da comparatore appropriato. Il gestore degli investimenti non è vincolato da alcun paese, settore e/o ponderazione dei singoli titoli rispetto al benchmark e ha completa libertà di investire in titoli che non fanno parte del benchmark.

L'informativa sugli indici dei fornitori può essere trovata qui.

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