Why was Lydia So named a Lead Portfolio Manager of the Growth and Income Fund alongside Andrew Foster and Paul Espinosa?

Lydia So was added to the Fund due to her demonstrated investment expertise: she is Seafarer’s research specialist with respect to growth securities. Lydia has a thirteen-year track record of managing growth-oriented strategies in emerging markets and emerging Asia. She has built and led a team of portfolio managers and analysts focused on growth-oriented strategies in emerging Asia.

For Seafarer’s “growth” research capability, Lydia directs the research queue and bears responsibility for security selection and portfolio construction decisions.

With respect to the Growth and Income Fund, Andrew Foster, Paul Espinosa, and Lydia So are responsible for the securities included in the portfolio in their respective areas of expertise (i.e. core (moderate growth/income), value, and growth, respectively).

View more information about the distinct core, value, and growth research capabilities that Seafarer employs to select securities for clients’ portfolios.

What has been the focus of Lydia So’s investment management career?

Lydia So’s career has focused on equity research and portfolio management in emerging markets. Prior to joining Seafarer, she was a portfolio manager at Rondure Global Advisors. Before Rondure, Lydia spent 15 years at Matthews International Capital Management, adviser to the Matthews Asia Funds, where she built and led a team focused on growth-oriented strategies in emerging Asia. While there, she launched and was the Lead Portfolio Manager of the Matthews Asia Small Companies Fund (known now as the Matthews Emerging Markets Small Companies Fund) from its inception in 2008 to 2020. For more information, see Lydia’s biography.

What is Lydia So’s experience as a portfolio manager in emerging markets?

Lydia So has a thirteen-year track record of managing growth-oriented strategies in emerging markets and emerging Asia. She was formerly a portfolio manager of the following mutual funds:

Who are the Portfolio Managers of the Growth and Income Fund, and when were they named managers of the Fund?

Andrew Foster founded Seafarer Capital Partners in 2011 and has been a Portfolio Manager of the Fund since its inception on February 15, 2012.

Paul Espinosa joined Seafarer Capital Partners as a Senior Analyst in 2014, was promoted to Co-Portfolio Manager of the Fund in 2016, and was promoted to Lead Portfolio Manager of the Fund in 2018.

Lydia So joined Seafarer Capital Partners in 2022 and was named a Lead Portfolio Manager of the Fund effective August 31, 2022.

Will the investment objectives of the Fund change because of Lydia So’s addition as a portfolio manager?

No, the objectives of the Fund remain unchanged. The Fund aims to offer exposure to the growth potential of the emerging markets along with some current income (typically dividends from common stocks). It also seeks to mitigate adverse volatility in returns. Lydia So's new role enhances the Fund’s ability to pursue its stated objectives.

Will the Fund’s research process change because of Lydia So’s addition as a portfolio manager?

No, the research process for the Fund remains materially unchanged. Seafarer continues to utilize bottom-up security selection to construct a portfolio that offers a broad balance between prospective growth and current cash flow. The Seafarer research process recognizes that there is not a single determinative set of screens or metrics that is applied to every security selection decision in the portfolio. The research team analyzes each security using the metrics best suited to understand the current valuation relative to the growth potential.

Lydia So brings a significant amount of experience in researching growth-oriented equities in the emerging markets. She directs the research process for growth securities to identify new positions that represent an “upgrade” to existing positions in the Fund. For the Fund’s growth securities, Lydia bears responsibility for security selection and portfolio construction decisions.

How will the three Lead Portfolio Managers work together to make security selection decisions for the Fund?

Andrew Foster, Paul Espinosa, and Lydia So are responsible for the securities included in the portfolio in their respective areas of expertise (i.e., core (moderate growth/income), value, and growth, respectively).

Seafarer’s research process is a collaborative effort in which Portfolio Managers work with analysts on a project-by-project basis to identify positions that would be an “upgrade” to existing positions in the portfolio. That process continues as before. Each of the three Lead Portfolio Managers directs projects within their distinct areas of expertise. Andrew Foster focuses on securities presenting moderately underappreciated growth and moderately elevated dividend yields. Paul Espinosa is responsible for researching stocks that demonstrate higher yields or other measures of attractive valuations. Lydia So leads the effort to identify stocks that typically display lower yields but have significant growth potential.

As before, before any security is admitted to the Fund, the entire investment team undertakes a critical review of the prospective holding in a group presentation and discussion.

Each Portfolio Manager is responsible for making the final investment decision on each stock that falls within their area of expertise, and for each position’s weighting and eventual replacement.

Are the Fund’s regional, country, sector, and/or market capitalization allocations expected to change because of Lydia So’s addition as a portfolio manager?

The Fund’s exposures to regions, sectors, market capitalization, and other economic factors are not fixed and can fluctuate over time. While Lydia So brings distinct capabilities and experience to her management of the Fund, she was not named as a Portfolio Manager to effect any particular change in the Fund’s current or future allocation to the aforementioned factors – in other words, allocation will continue to fluctuate over time, as before. Exposures to regions, sectors, and market capitalization continue to be the result of the same bottom-up investment process that has been employed since the launch of the Fund. Seafarer expects the portfolio will remain dynamic in its ability to identify securities that provide exposure to the growth opportunity in the emerging markets while mitigating downside volatility.

Does Seafarer expect that Lydia So’s addition as a portfolio manager will lead to higher portfolio turnover?

The Fund’s investment process continues to remain long term in its orientation and its holding periods. While rates of portfolio turnover can vary substantially from period to period due to opportunities presented by market conditions, Seafarer has no reason to expect that turnover in future fiscal years will substantially exceed its past range. However, Seafarer anticipates that some positions in the Fund will change in 2022 and 2023 as Lydia So and Andrew Foster collaborate on new ideas.

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