Wealth Shortlist Update: Invesco Global Emerging Markets

The fund aims to grow your investment over the long term by investing in companies across a range of emerging economies. The fund managers are contrarians, looking for companies that are out of favour with other investors and whose shares are priced for less than they should be. This is an approach known as value investing. Emerging markets can offer plenty of opportunities for investors but are higher risk than more developed markets.

Charlie Bond is the fund’s lead manager. He’s been part of the Asia & Emerging Markets team at Invesco since 2012 and has managed this fund since 2020. We’ve met Bond many times and find him to be a knowledgeable yet humble investor. This is a quality we like as it shows continued development as an investor. Bond has learned his craft under the guidance of William Lam and Ian Hargreaves, who are co-heads of the team. They’re both experienced investors who have spent their whole careers investing in Asia, which forms a large part of the emerging markets universe.

As well as Lam and Hargreaves, Bond has the support of deputy manager Matt Pigott and the rest of the Asia & Emerging Markets team. We like the collaborative approach of the team, with each member contributing investment ideas and a focus on developing talent.

Both fund managers and analysts search for companies where they think the share price is less than their actual value and try to understand the reasons behind this. The team then build a detailed understanding of the company, including meeting the management team, competitors, and suppliers, and assessing the company’s financial strength. Each idea is debated by the whole team, ensuring different viewpoints are considered.

The fund has performed well since Bond became lead manager. Our analysis shows that the managers have added value through their selection of individual companies. This is the ability to invest in companies that go on to perform well regardless of which country or sector they’re in, rather than making bigger economic calls and investing in the right areas of the market at the right time. This ability allows the managers to maintain a diversified fund that’s invested across many countries and industries.

The managers mainly invest in large, established businesses. They also have the ability to invest in higher-risk smaller companies, though currently they don’t invest much in this part of the market.

Over the long term, we expect the fund to do better when value investing is in favour. The reverse is also true and the fund might not perform as well when the growth style is favoured. The managers prefer to invest in higher-quality companies, so we expect the fund to hold up better than its peers when markets are falling. Overall, we think Bond, supported by a collegiate team at Invesco, has the ability to provide good long-term returns to investors. As always, there are no guarantees.

We’ve also published a full fund update alongside this notification, where you can find out more about the managers, their investment process and the fund’s performance.

Although we're adding the fund to the Wealth Shortlist, this isn't a recommendation to make any changes to an investment portfolio. Investors should make sure any investments match their investment goals and attitude to risk and are held as part of a diversified portfolio. If you're not sure if an investment is suitable for your circumstances, please seek personal advice. Investments go up and down in value so you could get back less than you invest.

For more details on the fund, including its risks and charges, use the links to the factsheet and key investor information.

We've also published a full fund update for this fund.