Rolle im Portfolio
The iShares Asia Pacific Dividend UCITS provides exposure to many of the highest dividend-paying stocks from several developed Asian markets, with a heavy tilt towards Australia. About one quarter of the index is made up of financials.
As the index chooses securities based on dividend yield rather than market capitalisation, this fund could be used as a complement to core exposure to the region, though there would be potential for overlap. Its position in the Morningstar Style Box shows a tilt towards value stocks, indicating that it may also work well in conjunction with an exposure offering more of a growth profile.
Because of the investment strategy, the fund would suit an investor looking for a regular income stream. The fund pays out dividends from the underlying stocks on a quarterly basis, currently at a yield level of 3.83%.
Fundamentale Analyse
While many investors chase capital gains, historically much of the total return from equities has come in the form of dividends. Depending on the market in question, they have historically accounted for 40% to 60% of the returns from investing in stocks. A policy of regularly paying out earnings can discipline corporate management and reduce the chance of unprofitable acquisitions. Dividends also give investors a ‘bird in the hand,’ rather than just the promise of enhanced enterprise value at an unidentified point in the future.
Thanks to its vast supply of natural resources, Australia has benefited from the strong bull market for commodities seen over the last 15 years. The country’s economy has consistently expanded, averaging 3.5% GDP growth per annum for the last 20 years. A mining boom in the West together with a bumper grain harvest in 2013 only reinforced its consistent economic growth. China had been the main driver of Australia’s commodity exports, mainly due to a growing demand for resources to aid China’s investment in national infrastructure. But with China’s growth slowing, the demand for raw materials remains uncertain.
The Australian and New Zealand companies within the index represent parts of the economy outside the materials sector—such as financials, which makes up almost 40% of the Australian exposure—but will be indirectly impacted by the state of the market for natural resources.
In Japan, Abenomics, the unorthodox monetary policy put forward by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has reined in deflation and reignited consumer confidence and spending. There is uncertainty, however, on how key events will affect future growth. Japan increased the retail tax rate from 5% to 8% in April 2014, which could bear down on private consumption in the second half of the year.
Indexkonstruktion
The DJ Asia Pacific Select Dividend 30 Index is comprised of 30 stocks across Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore. Stocks are weighted by dividend yield, calculated as their unadjusted indicated annual dividend (not including any special dividends) divided by their price. The index methodology screens the universe in several ways. To be included, a stock must have paid dividends in each of the previous three years; last year’s dividend must be equal to or greater than its three-year average; its five-year average payout ratio must be less than 85%, or must be less than 1.5 times the payout ratio of the corresponding DJGI country index, whichever is smaller; and it must pass a screen for minimum trading volume. Once those screens are run, the top 30 stocks by dividend yield are selected. The index is formally reviewed on an annual basis. To limit turnover, existing names stay in the index until their yield rank falls to 60th or lower. No more than 15 companies can come from any one country, and individual security weights are capped at 15%. The index is heavily concentrated, with the top 10 names accounting for 40-45% of the total weighting. Geographically, there is a heavy tilt towards Australia, with a 50-55% weighting, followed by Hong Kong (15-17%), New Zealand (10-12%), Singapore (10-12%) and Japan (8-10%). Top sectors are financials (24-26%), telecommunications (20-22%), and consumer services (19-21%). The top positions are Telecom Corp of New Zealand (6-7%), Monadelphous Group (5-6%) and SP AusNet (5-6%).
Fondskonstruktion
The fund uses physical replication to try to capture the performance of its benchmark, owning – to the extent possible and efficient – shares in the underlying constituents in the same weights as those of the index. In certain circumstances, the fund may also use derivatives to achieve its objectives. In the 12 months through March 2014, an average of 16.08% of the portfolio was out on loan, to a maximum of 29.37%, and in total the programme added 8 basis points of net return to the fund. BlackRock, iShares’ parent company and lending agent, claims to keep 40% of gross securities lending revenue for itself, out of which amount it will pay the associated costs of the activity, and passes 60% of the revenue to the fund. BlackRock has a 50% cap in place on the amount of assets that its iShares funds can lend out. To protect the fund from a borrower’s default, BlackRock takes collateral greater than the loan value. Collateral levels vary from 102.5% to 112% of the value of the securities on loan, depending on the assets provided by the borrower as collateral. Additional counterparty risk mitigation measures include borrower default indemnification. Specifically, BlackRock commits to replace the securities that a borrower fails to return, but it will not cover losses incurred on the reinvestment of cash collateral.
Gebühren
The fund’s total expense ratio (TER) is 0.59%. Other costs potentially borne by the unitholder but not included in the total expense ratio include transaction costs on the infrequent occasions when the underlying holdings change, and bid-ask spreads and brokerage fees when buy and sell orders are placed for ETF shares. Income generated from securities lending could potentially recoup some of the total costs.
Alternativen
To get exposure to high-yielding Asian equities, an alternative to this product is db x-trackers MSCI Asia ex-Japan High Dividend Yield Index ETF, which gives exposure to both developed and emerging markets within Asia. Other alternatives for developed market exposure within the region, that do not target high dividend yields, include Amundi ETF MSCI Pacific ex-Japan, UBS-ETF MSCI Pacific (ex-Japan), and HSBC MSCI Pacific ex-Japan. Of these, the HSBC product has the lowest fees, with a TER of 0.40%.
