Should you buy JPMorgan's top emerging market trust?

The JPMorgan Emerging Markets Trust fund has outperformed its benchmark over the long term and offers good value

JPMorgan Headquarters At Canary Wharf
(Image credit: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

Veteran fund manager Nils Taube used to advise people “never to invest in a country where you don’t need a coat in winter”. That view came to seem antiquated when Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs coined the term “Brics” to cover the largest emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India and China. O’Neill’s thesis was that these countries were emerging as central players in the world economy. They were collectively set to overtake the G6 developed economies in size on a purchasing power parity basis by 2025. The implication was that these countries would account for an increasing share of global stock markets.

Instead, Brazil has proved the old adage that it is “the country of tomorrow and always will be”. Russia has gone backwards economically and disappeared as a destination for investment. The Chinese economy is struggling to recover from a huge property bust and stocks have flatlined for 25 years. Only India is making the progress expected, while South Africa, tagged on as an afterthought, struggles with crime, corruption and anaemic growth.

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Max King
Investment Writer

Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – two directorships are still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. See here for details of current investments held by Max.