Objective

The Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies Trust plc aims to achieve long-term capital growth by investing mainly in smaller Asian quoted companies with market capitalisations under US$5,000m at the time of investment, or the equivalent. For investment purposes, the investment region includes China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Countries in other parts of Asia may be considered with approval of the Board.

Investment Philosophy

We are conviction-based, bottom-up stock selectors with a strong emphasis on high quality proprietary research. Our investment approach adopts an absolute return mind-set and is inherently conservative, focusing on capital preservation as well as capital growth. By focusing on the potential downside (not just the upside) when making any investment decision, the risk to long-term client returns is significantly reduced. We are long-term investors and prefer to invest in quality companies that we can hold on to for many years.

Investment Process

The most significant source of investment ideas for the portfolio comes through country and company visits. As a team, we conduct more than a thousand direct company meetings throughout the year, seeking to identify a small sub-set of quality companies that meet our investment criteria. We place a clear emphasis on frequent visits to countries in the Asia region and on meeting the management of those companies in which the Company is invested, or might invest.

While cultural, political, economic and sectoral influences play an important part in the decision-making process, the availability of attractively-priced, good quality companies with solid long-term growth prospects is the major determinant of Scottish Oriental’s investment policy. Our country weightings bear no relationship to regional stock market indices and we do not consider ourselves obliged to hold investments in any individual market, sector or company. As a result, our asset allocation on a country and industry level is a residual of our stock selection process.