Matthews Pacific Tiger
Matthews Asia is a specialist Asian manager based in San Francisco. Pacific Tiger is its flagship fund, and aims to invest in high-quality companies for the long term. It is a high-conviction, low turnover portfolio with an emphasis on domestically or regionally-oriented companies that stand to benefit from the long-term evolution and growth of the Asian consumer. Although the fund can invest across all market capitalisations, it does tend to favour mid- and small-cap companies.
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Sean Taylor, Lead Manager Sean Taylor is the Chief Investment Officer at Matthews, where he leads the investment team and manages strategies focused on Pacific, Asia, and emerging markets. He joined Matthews in October 2023, bringing 30 years of experience. Before that, he was CIO for APAC and Global Head of Emerging Markets Equity at DWS Group in Hong Kong, and previously worked at GAM and Societe Generale. Sean has managed various global and emerging markets funds, covering regions like Latin America, India, and China. He holds an MBA from Manchester Business School and graduated from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
Inbok Song, Lead Manager Inbok Song is a Portfolio Manager at Matthews, overseeing the firm’s Pacific Tiger and Asia ex Japan Total Return Equity Strategies and co-managing the Emerging Markets Sustainable Future and Asia Innovators Strategies. She rejoined Matthews in 2019 after three years at Seafarer Capital Partners, where she was a portfolio manager and Director of Research. Previously, she was with Thornburg Investment Management and Matthews, and started her career in private equity and technology roles in South Korea. Inbok holds multiple degrees, including a B.A. and Masters in Materials Science and Engineering from Seoul National University, and degrees in International Management from the University of London and Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. She is fluent in Korean.
Andrew Mattock, Co-Manager Andrew Mattock is a Portfolio Manager at Matthews, overseeing the firm's China, China Small Companies, China Discovery, and China A-Share strategies, and co-managing the Pacific Tiger, China Dividend, and Emerging Markets Equity strategies. He joined Matthews in 2015, having previously spent 15 years at Henderson Global Investors, where he managed Asia Pacific equities from both London and Singapore. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Business in Accounting from ACU and began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant.
Winnie Chwang, Co-Manager Winnie Chwang is a Portfolio Manager at Matthews, where she manages the China Small Companies, China Discovery, and China Dividend Strategies, and co-manages the China, China A-Share, Pacific Tiger, and Asia Dividend Strategies. She has built her investment career at Matthews since joining the firm in 2004. Winnie holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business and a B.A. in Economics with a minor in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley. She is fluent in Mandarin and conversational in Cantonese.
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Quote from the Fund Manager
As long-term investors in Asia, we believe the best opportunities for wealth creation arise when market reforms, enhanced competition and rising household incomes combine to spur new and growing markets.
Sean Taylor
Lead Manager
Investment process
Matthews Pacific Tiger's investment philosophy is to ignore short-term macroeconomic issues and focus entirely on the long term. Matthews is deliberately based in San Francisco to remove the day-to-day noise of the Asian markets. However, the team makes regular visits to the region and see thousands of companies, including suppliers and customers of potential stock ideas.
Matthews has a large investment team from diverse backgrounds. The members have a wide range of local knowledge and speak 13 different languages between them. All fund managers sit with their team and work as analysts. The fund aims to buy high quality, capital-light businesses, which are typically more expensive than the index, but which have great potential for growth. Corporate governance is extremely important. The team spends 3-12 months working on each new idea.
Risk
Risk is managed through very detailed research – typically 3 to 12 months on each idea. The team then builds a position slowly; only adding further once the company hits certain milestones. The fund has a strong bias to quality and is typically underweight more cyclical sectors such as energy, materials and technology. It is also more exposed to the Asian consumer than Asian exporters. As a result, Matthews Pacific Tiger may experience periods of underperformance in the short term, when low quality shares rally. Investors should also be aware of the currency risk.
ESG
ESG - Integrated
While this strategy is not explicitly managed with a dedicated ESG mandate, ESG factors - particularly governance - are an important input into the investment process. From a portfolio management perspective, a critical component of meetings with company management is an in-depth analysis of the company’s corporate governance structure, philosophy and commitment. The team probes management’s thinking on business models, capital allocation, budgeting and utilisation, as well as future growth initiatives, competition and other issues. It seeks to develop a view on the integrity of management, its alignment with minority shareholders and ability to effectively manage the company through market and economic cycles. The analysis also includes a strong focus on certain factors which some investors consider to be “ESG” factors, but which Matthews considers “core” to understanding the sustainability of revenues, cash flows and profits, regardless of what label may be ascribed to this analysis. These factors include the commitment and ability of a firm to sustainably address labour matters, policy and regulatory requirements, customer interests, dividend policies, and minority shareholder rights.
The information, data, analyses, and opinions contained herein (1) include the proprietary information of FundCalibre, (2) may not be copied or redistributed without prior permission, (3) do not constitute investment advice offered by FundCalibre, (4) are provided solely for informational purposes and therefore are not an offer to buy or sell a fund, and (5) are not warranted to be correct, complete, or accurate. FundCalibre shall not be responsible for any trading decisions, damages, or other losses resulting from, or related to, this information, data, analyses, or opinions or their use. The Elite Fund rating is subjective in nature and reflects FundCalibre’s current expectations of future events/behaviour as they relate to a particular fund. Because such events/behaviour may turn out to be different than expected, FundCalibre does not guarantee that a fund will perform in line with its FundCalibre benchmark. Likewise, the Elite Fund rating should not be seen as any sort of guarantee or assessment of the creditworthiness of a fund nor of its underlying securities and should not be used as the sole basis for making any investment decision. FundCalibre disclaims any responsibility for trading decisions, damages or other losses resulting from any use of the Elite Fund rating. All performance data, as well as fund size, OCF, AMC, annual income (historic), share price discount or premium, is sourced directly from FE Analytics, and will change periodically.