Baillie Gifford爲何不碰A股

A lack of clarity on tax, foreign exchange and central bank policy are deterring Baillie Gifford’s Richard Sneller from buying mainland Chinese equities, even though he views the market as a strong opportunity.

Baillie Gifford的基金經理理查德•斯內勒(Richard Sneller)認爲，由於中國的稅收、外匯和央行政策缺乏透明度，他沒有購買中國內地的股票，儘管他認爲這個市場蘊含着很大的機遇。

The fund manager has roughly 17 per cent of his portfolio in Chinese stocks, but this is entirely via Hong Kong-listed “H” shares, rather than the Shanghai-listed “A” share variety.

斯內勒的投資組合中大約有17%是中國企業股票，但他只買入香港上市的H股，沒有在上海的A股。

He has co-managed the Emerging Markets Growth fund for more than a decade, in which time the fund has returned 235 per cent versus benchmark returns of 183 per cent, according to FE Analytics, the data provider.

斯內勒與他人共同管理“新興市場增長基金”(Emerging Markets Growth)逾十年，數據提供商FE Analytics的數據顯示，在此期間該基金實現了235%的回報率，而同期基準指數的回報率是183%。

In the past five years, however, it has only narrowly outperformed the index.

然而，在過去5年裏，該基金的表現僅略好於基準指數。

Mr Sneller said in spite of the Hong Kong-ShanghaiStock Connect scheme, which has made foreign investment in China easier, there were still issues preventing him from buying mainland stocks.

斯內勒表示，儘管中國推出了滬港通，但由於某些問題，他仍不願購買內地股票。滬港通可以讓外國人更容易地投資於中國內地股市。

“We do spend time looking at the A-share market but we are not there yet,” he said.

他說：“我們的確花時間研究了A股市場，但我們目前還沒有在那裏投資。”

These issues include a lack of clarity surrounding how capital gains tax is levied on investments.

其中一個問題是中國沒有澄清如何對相關投資所得徵收資本利得稅。

He added there were concerns surrounding foreign exchange as well as the flow of money in and out of the country when stocks are bought and sold.

他補充稱，在外匯方面，以及在買賣股票時資金進出中國方面，也都存在令人擔憂的問題。

“There is an element of discretion by the central bank in terms of taking large amounts of money out,” he said.

他說：“對於轉出大筆資金的做法，中國央行有一定的自行決定權。”

Mr Sneller’s biggest bet is on information technology, especially companies targeting emerging market consumers.

斯內勒重點押注信息技術領域，尤其是那些以新興市場消費者爲目標客戶的公司。

“We have 50 per cent of the portfolio in IT companies, which is a very large position, but we are excited about them as we feel the valuations are failing to understand the long-term shifts in consumer behaviour,” he said.

他說：“我們有50%的投資組合投向IT公司，這是非常大的倉位，但我們對這些公司感到非常興奮，因爲我們覺得它們的估值未能體現出消費者行爲的長期轉變。”

However Mr Sneller acknowledged this was the “biggest risk” to the portfolio, given that investors can sometimes get “too excited about technology companies”.

然而，斯內勒承認，鑑於投資者有時“對科技公司過於狂熱”，這是該投資組合的“最大風險”。

Mr Sneller said while he and his team followed the Baillie Gifford style of bottom-up, long-term investing, the cycles in emerging markets were often “shorter and sharper”, so the economic backdrop is not ignored.

斯內勒表示，儘管他和他的團隊遵循Baillie Gifford的自下而上(bottom-up)、長線投資的風格，但新興市場的週期通常“更爲短暫和劇烈”，因此他們不會忽視經濟背景。

As China was likely to be cutting back on infrastructure and property investment, he said was “fairly negative on a top-down macro view” on countries such as Brazil and South Africa, which are strongly linked to the commodity cycle.

他說，由於中國在基礎設施和房地產領域的投資可能減少，“按照自上而下的宏觀分析方法”，這對巴西和南非等與大宗商品週期聯繫緊密國家“有相當大的負面影響”。

The fund also has 20 per cent position in India focused on export-orientated IT outsourcing companies.

該基金還有20%的倉位投資於印度，重點是以出口爲導向的IT外包公司。

Bradley Gerrard is news editor at Investment Adviser

本文作者是英國《金融時報》旗下刊物Investment Adviser的新聞編輯