Zurich Investments is preparing to launch a new equity growth fund that will give investors exposure to Australian and Asian equities in the third quarter of this year.
"The fund manager that we are talking to at the moment has got a reputation within Asia and has a growth style," Zurich Investments general manager Matthew Drennan said.
"If you think about growth within the Australian market per se, there is a fairly limited scope in terms of investment opportunities. So what we are trying to do is broaden that approach into a wider market," Drennan said.
"We think there is a good combination to be had with the growth that can be had locally, but expanding that universe so that we can pick up on some of the growth opportunities in those developed Asian markets as well," he said.
The new fund would be set up as a separate product, but Drennan is also considering bringing the strategy into Zurich's diversified fund range.
The new fund would invest in established Asian markets such as Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan, but not in the exchanges of Thailand or Indonesia.
"We want to understand the financial accounts. We want to have better liquidity than we get in the smaller, more speculative markets and we think it is about getting exposure to that growth rather than investing directly in it," Drennan said.
For example, the fund would rather invest in a South Korean bank that has a large exposure to construction projects in China, rather than in a Chinese construction company listed on the Shanghai or Shenzhen stock exchanges.
