Winners rationale

Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) has been a key driver of thematic equity funds which are thriving across Asia’s private banking industry. Their long-term oriented, theme-based funds have proven more resilient than their ‘traditional’ long-only peers and continued to attract capital inflows even as market volatility picked up in 2018.

The Credit Suisse (Lux) Global Digital Health Equity Fund proves CSAM’s continuous commitment to product development and innovation, identifying relevant themes like ‘technology revolutionising healthcare’. With the support of the region’s private banking gatekeepers and end-investors, the fund generated a significant portion of CSAM’s net inflows last year.

The ‘Digital Health’ fund invests in companies that develop tech-driven and/or digital health solutions to tackle the challenges facing the healthcare sector: rising costs, ageing populations, and historical efficiencies. The fund achieved a 14.22% return year-to-date as of 30 November 2018, over 18% higher than its benchmark, MSCI World.

Part of the fund’s appeal is the first-mover advantage secured by early investors in this nascent theme, backed by structural growth drivers. The fund employs a unique ‘pure play’ approach to digital health requiring at least 50% of each underlying company’s revenues to be derived from the sale of digital health solutions. This has been key for clients, who benefit from direct exposure to the theme and a small- and mid-cap bias which is additive to their overall portfolios. Each of the 50-60 portfolio companies is a high conviction play and is expected to emerge as a potential industry leader over the next seven-to-ten years.

Backed by an 11-strong regional sales and marketing team with a consistently client-centric approach, CSAM was recognised by private banks as the provider of the industry’s Best New Fund, the Credit Suisse (Lux) Global Digital Health Equity Fund.