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Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders
The Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders strategy seeks to invest in 25-45 high-quality companies with exceptional cultures, strong franchises, and resilient financials outside of mainland China. It aims to achieve attractive long-term capital growth and contribute to a more sustainable future across global emerging markets.
It was launched in July 2024, reflecting investor appetite for global emerging market specialist funds without allocations to China, as well as pockets of concern over perceived investment risk and volatility in China.
Leaders simply means that the strategy is focused on companies with a market cap value of at least USD1 billion at the time of investment.
Strategy highlights: a focus on quality and sustainability
- We define investment risk as losing clients’ money – this means we focus on looking after your money as well as growing it
- Companies must contribute to sustainable development and make a positive impact towards a more sustainable future. Portfolio Explorer >
- We invest in high-quality companies with exceptional cultures, strong franchises and resilient financials. How we pick companies >
- We avoid companies linked to harmful activities and engage and vote for positive change. Our position on harmful products >
Latest insights
Quarterly updates
Strategy update: Q2 2025
Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders strategy update: 1 April - 30 June 2025
The announcement of President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs on 2 April and the short, sharp trade war with China that followed drove share prices sharply lower.
Nerves were soon calmed, however, by the announcement of a 90-day pause on the tariffs’ introduction. That calm endured even when Israel took direct military action against Iran, with the oil price spiking higher only briefly. Perhaps the most interesting development from our perspective, however, was that the US dollar had its weakest start to the year since 19731.
Towards the end of the quarter, we attended a conference at which we met a number of Indian companies. We were struck by how positive all of them were about the growth opportunities in front of them over the next 10 years. In our view, this potential growth should continue to offer powerful support to the Indian market. We added to our existing holding in Bajaj Auto (India: Consumer Discretionary), the world’s largest manufacturer of three-wheeled vehicles, which provide an affordable form of transport. The company is also well placed to play a leading role in India’s growing adoption of electric two- and three-wheeled vehicles.
Although our outlook on emerging markets is positive, we have become increasingly concerned about the outlook for companies dependent on investment in IT systems and services. Although we can see the need for many of their clients to reach out for their help with incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) tools, it may be that AI actually replaces IT services in some areas. In view of the risk that their clients postpone or cancel investments in their IT systems, we pared back our positions in Delta Electronics (Taiwan: Information Technology), Advantech (Taiwan: Information Technology), and AirTAC International (Taiwan: Industrials).
Looking ahead, we continue to see particularly good growth opportunities in India, where the central bank recently started cutting interest rates, and a gradually recovering picture across Asia more broadly. We are currently planning a trip to South Korea, where we hope to improve our understanding of the improvements to corporate governance taking place under the new government. We also hope to gain insight into the progress being made by Samsung Electronics (South Korea: Information Technology). It had a difficult 2024 but we believe it could now be turning a corner.
[1] Source: Financial Times, 30 June 2025 ‘US dollar suffers worst start to year since 1973’.
Source for company information: Stewart Investors investment team and company data. This stock information does not constitute any offer or inducement to enter into any investment activity. Portfolio data shown is from representative strategy accounts of the strategy shown above. Named new investments disclosed relate to holdings with a portfolio weight over 0.5%. It is not a recommendation or solicitation to purchase or invest in any fund. Differences between the representative account-specific constraints, currency or fees and those of a similarly managed fund or mandate would affect results.
Strategy update: Q1 2025
Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders strategy update: 1 January - 31 March 2025
With the threat of US tariffs ever present, many of the challenges emerging markets faced in the final quarter of 2024 carried over into 2025. Share prices in India fell sharply due to concerns about a slowdown in the economy. Those falls gave us the opportunity to invest in some new ideas which have been on our focus list for a while but which previously appeared to be on the expensive side.
Info Edge (India: Communication Services) is a technology company whose online jobs portal caters to 132,000 corporate customers and hosts around 100 million CVs1. It also has property, matchmaking and educational portals. Tube Investments (India: Consumer Discretionary) is an industrial group whose share price had fallen sharply, providing us with what we believe is an excellent entry point. Bajaj Auto (India: Consumer Discretionary) had also fell allowing us to add this leading manufacturer of motorcycles, scooters and auto rickshaws. Bajaj Holdings & Investment (India: Financials) is the holding company of siblings Rajiv and Sanjiv Bajaj. They have demonstrated a good track record of delivering returns for shareholders in autos and financial services.
Elsewhere, we built positions in Samsung Biologics (South Korea: Health Care), Alfamart (Indonesia: Consumer Staples), and BDO Unibank (Philippines: Financials). With the backing of its parent company, we believe Samsung Biologics can add capacity more quickly than its competitors and win market share. Alfamart is the second biggest company in Indonesia’s convenience-store sector2. It plans to roll out new stores across the country over the next decade. Its shares fell as the market took fright at Indonesia’s new government but we can see a clear and dependable growth path before it. Finally, BDO Unibank is the Philippines’ largest financial lender3.
We made one complete sell during the quarter, Dino Polska (Poland: Consumer Staples), which had performed well but had become too expensive given its long-term growth prospects.
While we are broadly positive on the outlook for emerging markets, we recognise that there is likely to be ongoing volatility for as long as worries about trade tariffs and global political tensions remain at elevated levels. Our task is to block out the short-term noise to focus on the underlying quality, growth and leadership of the companies we invest in.
[1] Source: InfoEdge: Annual Report 2023-24.
[2] Source: Fitch Ratings Fitch Revises Alfamart's Outlook to Positive; Affirms at 'AA(idn)'.
[3] Source: BDO Unibank – Company Profile (as of 31 December 2024).
Source for company information: Stewart Investors investment team and company data. This stock information does not constitute any offer or inducement to enter into any investment activity. Portfolio data shown is from representative strategy accounts of the strategy shown above. Named new investments disclosed relate to holdings with a portfolio weight over 0.5%. It is not a recommendation or solicitation to purchase or invest in any fund. Differences between the representative account-specific constraints, currency or fees and those of a similarly managed fund or mandate would affect results.
Strategy update: Q4 2024
Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders strategy update: 1 October - 31 December 2024
Through the last quarter of 2024, stock markets had to deal with the re-election of Donald Trump in the United States and all the expected world and political noise that will come over the next four years. At the same time the US dollar currency continued to strengthen. We remain focused on our investment process and investing in high-quality companies. We will continue to seek out long-term growth opportunities regardless of who is the President in the White House.
During the quarter, we bought Naver (South Korea: Communication Services), the leading internet search engine in South Korea. It was originally part of Samsung SDS before it became a separate company in 1999. It is still managed by the founder, Lee Hae-jin who has recently brought in a new management team which is aiming to return the company to a path of steady and profitable growth. One key aim for them is to use their large and stable search engine client base to drive growth in their e-commerce business. Their e-commerce business, which includes advertising, sales and memberships, is the second largest in South Korea2. We believe that Naver should achieve strong growth in the future and its attractive valuation gave us a good opportunity to invest at this time.
We trimmed the size of several companies in India in the quarter. These included Marico (India: Consumer Staples) and Godrej Consumer Products (India: Consumer Staples) which we believe are now slightly too expensive for our growth expectations in the coming years. We also trimmed our holding in Mahindra & Mahindra (India: Consumer Discretionary) to control risk from the large position size.
We continue to look for high-quality companies which we can buy at reasonable valuations. We believe that valuations in emerging markets are currently very attractive. Additionally, we see numerous long-term growth opportunities that we can support over the next decade. The team is planning many research trips for 2025 to seek out new investment opportunities and update our knowledge of existing holdings. We look forward to sharing more with you as the year progresses.
1 Source: MSCI Index Factsheets as at 31 December 2024. All data USD, total returns.
2 Source: External market research.
Source for company information: Stewart Investors investment team and company data. This stock information does not constitute any offer or inducement to enter into any investment activity. Portfolio data shown is from representative strategy accounts of the strategy shown above. Named new investments disclosed relate to holdings with a portfolio weight over 0.5%. It is not a recommendation or solicitation to purchase or invest in any fund. Differences between the representative account-specific constraints, currency or fees and those of a similarly managed fund or mandate would affect results.
Strategy update: Q3 2024
Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders strategy update: 1 July - 30 September 2024
This strategy launched during the quarter. We have found that asset allocators tend to have a bifurcated view on China, sometimes choosing to allocate large amounts of capital to China separately and sometimes choosing to avoid the region entirely. By launching this strategy, we are not making any sweeping statement about what we expect to happen in China in the years ahead. We are simply cognisant of the approach that some clients take and with our history of having limited amounts of capital allocated to China in our GEM All-Cap and Leaders strategies, we think we are well positioned to also manage this strategy.
Most of the quarter’s activity happened in September, as is often the case. It is in such moments, like the biggest market moves since 2009 in China and Hong Kong and rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, that we remain grateful for our long-term philosophy. It gives us the ability to step back in moments of such volatility and reminds us to focus on the more important, bottom-up drivers for the companies we own on your behalf.
We have not made any new purchases since launch on 11 July but we have sold out of one position, Kotak Mahindra Bank (India: Financials). We have seen Kotak, and other banks, finding it harder to attract deposits that will allow it and the others to keep growing loans at a fair clip that warrants the valuations the bank is currently on. It used to be the case that public sector banks were so discredited that no depositor would want to risk their savings at one of these state-owned banks. But this sector has been really cleaned up, which is great for the Indian consumer but makes for a more difficult competitive environment for the private sector banks, including Kotak. With growth looking muted and residual concerns about management, we decided to sell our holding.
An area where we are doing a lot of thinking is Poland. Here we hold Allegro (Poland: Consumer Discretionary), Dino Polska (Poland: Consumer Staples) and Jerónimo Martins (Portugal: Consumer Staples), which is listed in Portugal but >50% of revenues are from its Biedronka business in Poland.1 They all experienced strong growth through 2022 and 2023 as inflation helped them increase profit margin but the opposite has now happened. Deflation in food prices and rising costs have squeezed profit margins considerably.
As always, we spend the bulk of our time on continuing to better understand the quality attributes of the companies we invest in and finding similarly resilient ideas to add to the portfolio.
1 Source: Jerónimo Martins Annual Report 2023
Source for company information: Stewart Investors investment team and company data. This stock information does not constitute any offer or inducement to enter into any investment activity. Portfolio data shown is from representative strategy accounts of the strategy shown above. Named new investments disclosed relate to holdings with a portfolio weight over 0.5%. It is not a recommendation or solicitation to purchase or invest in any fund. Differences between the representative account-specific constraints, currency or fees and those of a similarly managed fund or mandate would affect results.
Voting
Voting: Q2 2025
Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders voting: 1 April - 30 June 2025
Voting by country of origin
Voting by proposal category
During the quarter there were 241 proposals from 22 companies to vote on. On behalf of our clients, we voted against eight proposals and abstained from voting on 11 proposals.
We voted against changing the terms of the board at EPAM Systems as the proposed changes would require all directors to stand for election annually instead of on staggered terms. While we understand the rationale for annual elections, we believe that a staggered approach provides continuity and helps prevent excessive turnover. We also voted against changes to limit the liability of certain officers, as we believe the company has demonstrated its ability to attract and retain an admirable management team under the current structure, which encourages managers to think and act as long-term owners. Finally, we voted against the appointment of the auditor as they have been in place for over 10 years. The company has given no information on rotate its auditor, something we believe is important to ensure a fresh perspective is brought to its accounts. (three proposals)
We voted against a proposal at MercadoLibre to move the company’s registration from Delaware to Texas as it did not provide clear reasons for the change, and we do not believe the move is aligned with shareholders’ interests. (one proposal)
We voted against the recasting of votes (the ability for voters to change their original votes on a particular matter in response to new information or changes to a proposal) for directors and the supervisory council at RaiaDrogasil. We believe the principle of recasting votes for an amended group of candidates is poor practice and would prefer the group to be resubmitted for voting. (two proposals)
We voted against the recasting of votes for the supervisory council at WEG as we believe the principle of recasting votes for an amended group of candidates is poor practice and would prefer the group to be resubmitted for voting. We also abstained from voting on a request for a separate board election and the election of a supervisory council position. According to Brazilian voting practices, we are unable to vote for this proposal while simultaneouslysupporting the board in its candidate elections. (two proposals)
By supporting the appointment of the auditor at Jerónimo Martins, we abstained from voting on three other proposals related to auditor appointments. (three proposals)
We abstained from voting on proposals relating to the accounts and acts of the board at Regional. At the time of voting, the company had not released its annual report and/or audited financial statements, leaving us without significant information to make an informed decision. (five proposals)
We abstained from voting on the establishment of a supervisory council at TOTVS as the company had not disclosed which candidates would be up for election to serve on the council. (two proposals)
We voted against a shareholder proposal regarding simple majority voting at EPAM Systems as this topic was already covered by the company's own proposal, which we supported. (one proposal)
Source for company information: Stewart Investors investment team and company data. This stock information does not constitute any offer or inducement to enter into any investment activity. Portfolio data shown is from representative strategy accounts of the strategy shown above. Voting chart numbers may not add to 100 due to rounding. SHP means: Shareholder Proposal.
Voting: Q1 2025
Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders voting: 1 January - 31 March 2025
Voting by country of origin
Voting by proposal category
During the quarter there were 34 resolutions from five companies to vote on. On behalf of clients, we voted against four resolutions.
We voted against executive remuneration at Bank Central Asia because we believed it was excessive. (one resolution)
We voted against the election of two directors and an audit committee member at Samsung Electronics as we do not believe them to be truly independent. (three resolutions)
Source for company information: Stewart Investors investment team and company data. This stock information does not constitute any offer or inducement to enter into any investment activity. Portfolio data shown is from representative strategy accounts of the strategy shown above. Voting chart numbers may not add to 100 due to rounding. SHP means: Shareholder Proposal.
Voting: Q4 2024
Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders voting: 1 October - 31 December 2024
Voting by country of origin
Voting by proposal category
During the quarter there were 41 resolutions from four companies to vote on. On behalf of clients, we did not vote against any resolutions.
Source for company information: Stewart Investors investment team and company data. This stock information does not constitute any offer or inducement to enter into any investment activity. Portfolio data shown is from representative strategy accounts of the strategy shown above. Voting chart numbers may not add to 100 due to rounding. SHP means: Shareholder Proposal.
Voting: Q3 2024
Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders voting: 1 July - 30 September 2024
Voting by country of origin
Voting by proposal category
During the quarter there were 47 resolutions from five companies to vote on. On behalf of clients, we did not vote against any resolutions.
Source for company information: Stewart Investors investment team and company data. This stock information does not constitute any offer or inducement to enter into any investment activity. Portfolio data shown is from representative strategy accounts of the strategy shown above. Voting chart numbers may not add to 100 due to rounding. SHP means: Shareholder Proposal.
Sustainable investment labels help investors find products that have a specific sustainability goal. This product does not have a UK sustainable investment label as it does not have a non-financial sustainability objective. Its objective is to achieve capital growth over the long-term by following its investment policy and strategy.
Portfolio Explorer
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For illustrative purposes only. Reference to the names of example company names mentioned in this communication is merely for explaining the investment strategy and should not be construed as investment advice or investment recommendation of those companies. Companies mentioned herein may or may not form part of the holdings of Stewart Investors. Holdings are subject to change.
Certain statements, estimates, and projections in this document may be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon Stewart Investors’ current assumptions and beliefs, in light of currently available information, but involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual actions or results may differ materially from those discussed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. There is no certainty that current conditions will last, and Stewart Investors undertakes no obligation to correct, revise or update information herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Source: Stewart Investors investment team and company data. Securities mentioned are all investee companies* from representative Asia Pacific All Cap Strategy, Asia Pacific & Japan All Cap Strategy, Asia Pacific Leaders Strategy, European All Cap Strategy, European (ex UK) All Cap Strategy, Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders Strategy, Global Emerging Markets Leaders Strategy, Global Emerging Markets All Cap Strategy, Indian Subcontinent All Cap Strategy, Worldwide All Cap Strategy and Worldwide Leaders Strategy accounts as at 30 June 2025. *Assets that the strategies may hold which an active decision has not been made, and sustainability assessment does not apply, include cash, cash equivalents, short-term holdings for the purpose of efficient portfolio management and holdings received as a result of mandatory corporate actions. Holdings of such assets will not appear on Portfolio Explorer. Not all strategies are available in all jurisdictions or to all audience types.
The Stewart Investors supports the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The full list of SDGs can be found on the United Nations website.
Source for Climate Solutions and impact figures: © 2014–2025 Project Drawdown (drawdown.org). Source for Human Development Pillars: Stewart Investors investment team.
Source for climate solutions and human development analysis and mapping: Stewart Investors investment team. Contributions are defined by the team as demonstrable contributions to any solution, either direct (directly attributable to products, services or practices provided by that company), or enabling (supported or made possible by products or technologies provided by that company).
Investment terms
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Fund data and information
Fund prices and details
Click on the links below to access key facts, literature, performance and portfolio information for the funds and share classes available in this jurisdiction:
Stewart Investors Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders (Irish VCC/Offshore)
| Fund name | Fund type | Currency | Price | Daily change | Price date | Factsheet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stewart Investors Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders Class E (Acc) | Irish UCITs | EUR | 9.04 | 0.29 | 29 Sep 2025 | |
| Stewart Investors Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders Class I (Acc) | Irish UCITs | EUR | 9.30 | 0.29 | 29 Sep 2025 | |
| Stewart Investors Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders Class VI (Acc) | Irish UCITs | EUR | 9.04 | 0.29 | 29 Sep 2025 | |
| Stewart Investors Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders Class E (Acc) | Irish UCITs | USD | 9.77 | 0.62 | 29 Sep 2025 | |
| Stewart Investors Global Emerging Markets (ex China) Leaders Class VI (Acc) | Irish UCITs | USD | 9.77 | 0.62 | 29 Sep 2025 |
Share prices are calculated on a forward pricing basis which means that the price at which you buy or sell will be calculated at the next valuation point after the transaction is placed. Where a fund price is marked XD, this means that the fund is currently Ex-Dividend. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance. The value of shares and income from them may go down as well as up and is not guaranteed. Please note that the yield quoted above is not the historic yield. It is considered that the yield quoted represents the current position of investments, income and expenses in the fund and that this is a more accurate figure. Investors may be subject to tax on their distribution. The yield is not guaranteed or representative of future yields. You should be aware that any currency movements could affect the value of your investment. The Funds within the First Sentier Investors Global Umbrella Fund plc (Irish VCC) are denominated in USD or EUR.
Following the UK departure from the European Union, the First Sentier Investors ICVC, an open ended investment company registered in England and Wales ("OEIC") has ceased to qualify as a UCITS scheme and is instead an Alternative Investment Fund ("AIF") for European Union purposes under the terms of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (2011/61/EU). Accordingly, no marketing activities relating to the OEIC are being carried out by Stewart Investors in the European Union (or the additional EEA states) and the OEIC is not available for distribution in those jurisdictions. We have made documents available for existing EU investors in the ICVC which can be accessed here.
Strategy and fund name changes
As of end of 2024, please note that Stewart Investors strategies and the Funds within the UK First Sentier Investors ICVC, First Sentier Investors Global Umbrella Fund plc (Irish VCC) and First Sentier Investors Global Growth Funds (Singapore Unit Trust) have been renamed. Please refer to our note via the link below for further information.
