5 APAC Investment Opportunities to Watch from Q1 2026

The strategy delivered long-term results broadly in line with its objectives under former sole manager, David Fishwick. However, a key question now is whether that consistency can be maintained under new leadership.  

Gautam Samarth stepped in as lead manager in late 2024, supported by comanagers Stuart Canning and Tristan Hanson. While the team adheres to the long-standing philosophy and positioning, it’s unclear how much decision-making responsibility they previously held, making execution under Samarth a key area to watch. 

The investment process starts with assessing asset-class valuations versus “fair value,” supplemented by behavioral analysis designed to fade extreme sentiment and crowded positioning. While sensible in concept, the approach is highly fluid and difficult to apply consistently. There is no structured framework for translating behavioral insights into decisions, and the absence of formal positioning guidelines adds to outcome variability. 

This strategy combines an equity sleeve with an options overlay to target a total income of 5% to 7% over the cycle. The equity sleeve is split evenly between: 

• Singapore stocks, tilted to SMID-caps, with a target yield 1.1 times that of the FTSE ST All-Share Index.
• Asia-Pacific ex-Japan stocks with a target yield of 1.2 times the MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan Index. 

Income is generated through a mix of dividends (3%–5%) and call option premiums (around 2%). 

This strategy is in good hands. ASEAN specialists Pauline Ng and Chang Qi Ong co-lead the equity sleeve, alongside Asia income managers Julie Ho and Ruben Lienhard. They’re supported by a 130-strong emerging-market and Asia-Pacific equities team and rely on JPMorgan’s long-standing classification framework, which has underpinned consistent stock selection over time. 

The options sleeve, led by Stuart O’Neill, sells rolling one-month calls on four major indexes, covering roughly 15% of equity notional. Bottom-up stock selection remains the primary driver of returns. The options overlay may cap upside during strong rallies, but it’s designed to add resilience in flat or down markets. Performance will also be influenced by the portfolio’s structural overweight to Singapore. 

The strategy is led by seasoned manager Michelle Sim, who has spent most of her 31-year investment career managing ASEAN equities. While her tenure managing dedicated Singapore equity strategies is relatively recent, she is supported by comanager Shawn Ang—who brings REIT expertise—and analysts from Fullerton’s broader equity team. 

The managers populate this 20-40 stock portfolio with companies set to benefit from structural themes such as “corporate strategy uplift”—structural changes aimed at improving returns on invested capital over time. The manager’s broad definition of growth, spanning structural, quality, cyclical, and defensive buckets, allows the framework to adapt to Singapore’s historically value-tilted market. The approach’s flexible design also results in greater dependence on manager execution, which is worth monitoring as the strategy builds its track record. 

Simon Tan has led the strategy since 2015 and was instrumental in building Nomura’s broader Asia fixed-income platform. Supported by comanager Takashi Mishima, the team is relatively lean but notably stable—a meaningful advantage in credit markets. 

The strategy is more conservative than many Asia-bond rivals, which typically allocate between 10% and 20% to high-yield debt. The team relies heavily on data analysis to identify securities that are trading richly or cheaply relative to historical levels and sector peers, helping guide investment decisions. The strategy’s high-quality focus also helped it sidestep defaults during the market’s rocky 2021–23 period. Overall, the strategy has delivered strong outcomes across different market environments under Tan’s leadership. 

Lead manager Pheona Tsang is a seasoned Asia credit investor and has led this strategy for more than a decade since joining the firm in 2012. She’s supported by an eight-member team of analysts and portfolio managers. The team is relatively lean compared with those of more established peers, which means portfolio managers remain closely involved in research. 

This strategy is built on a bottom-up research process, with a strong emphasis on risk management and avoiding credit defaults. This was particularly evident during the China property crisis, when the manager proactively reduced exposure to below 5% in 2022, down from as high as 50% in earlier years. 

Meanwhile, the fund’s relatively uncommon reference index can lead the portfolio to diverge from category peers; for instance, Indian issuers accounted for nearly 43% of assets as of December 2025, well above the typical 15%–20% allocation of most category peers.