Matthews has a long history of success with funds that focus on Asian equities, but it has overhauled its strategy roster in recent years. Since early 2020, it has liquidated three funds, merged another away, launched its first diversified emerging-markets fund, and converted two of its Asia funds into diversified emerging-markets offerings. It also has opened four active exchange-traded funds in the past 12 months. That's a lot of change, and the firm is unproven in the diversified emerging-markets arena, though the fact that Asian stocks dominate the emerging-markets universe is grounds for optimism.
Matthews still has 30 individuals—excluding portfolio strategists and traders—on its investment team, and many are seasoned and skilled. But the firm has lost quite a few managers and analysts since the start of 2020, and the investment team is much smaller than it was. Further, its management team has had notable departures and retirements, such as former CEO William Hackett. Fundholders have pulled sizable amounts from Matthews' funds in recent years, and assets under management fell to $12 billion as of May 31, 2023, from $27 billion as of Dec. 31, 2019.