When the Jupiter Asian Income fund launched on 2 March 2016, the objective sounded straightforward: build an all-weather Asian equity income portfolio designed to deliver a reliable yield, backed by quality companies and managed with discipline. Then the world threw some curveballs: Brexit, Trump elected twice, a pandemic, a global inflation shock, multiple military conflicts, tariffs and a rolling cycle of geopolitical stress.
Yet through that noise, we believe the strategy has done what it set out to do. From launch through 27 February 2026, the fund outperformed its target benchmark by 54%1. We believe that reflects the compounding effect of a repeatable investment approach, applied through wildly different market regimes. Launched at £1, the price of the institutional accumulation shares closed at £3.5082 on 27 February 2026, a CAGR of 13.38%.2 Investors who bought the fund at launch would have three and a half times their initial investment.
2016: Launch year…and the Brexit aftershock
The fund’s first year was hardly calm. Within months of launch, markets were rattled by the Brexit referendum (June 2016) - a UK political event, yes, but one that tightened global financial conditions, jolted currencies, and reignited risk-off behaviour everywhere. In Asia, that typically means investors rush toward perceived quality and liquidity, and away from weaker balance sheets.
That early environment reinforced a principle that has remained central: own liquid, large-cap businesses with real cash flows, not stories held together with optimism and low interest rates. From the beginning we’ve kept our investment approach simple and transparent - to invest in a concentrated portfolio of businesses from across the region and stick with them for years rather than months. We look for a combination of growth and value - companies that will grow their earnings and therefore be able to deliver growing dividend streams, that are reasonably priced, with balance sheet strength and good governance. Our focus on building an all-season portfolio has been tested repeatedly and proven over the 10 years.
2017–2019: Politics everywhere, and Asia’s shifting centre of gravity
In 2016 the US elected Donald Trump, and the following years brought a harder edge to trade policy, culminating in escalating US–China tensions. Asia felt that pressure directly through supply chains, export demand, and investor positioning.
Meanwhile, election outcomes across Asia repeatedly influenced markets. India’s 2019 election reaffirmed policy continuity and reform ambition—helpful for domestic-facing businesses and for sentiment. Across the region investors continued to reward companies with durable franchises and consistent shareholder returns. In those pre-Covid years, markets also became more comfortable paying up for scale, platform economics, and network effects -setting the stage for large technology companies to become a major driver of returns for strategies willing to own them.
2020–2021: Covid turns the global economy off and on again
Covid wasn’t a normal recession. It was a mandated stop-start of global activity, a stress test of supply chains, and a live demonstration that balance-sheet strength matters when the world suddenly retraces. Asia’s experience varied by country, but the key investment lesson was universal: businesses with pricing power, strong cash generation and resilient demand tended to recover fastest. 2020 was a tough year for the fund, in relative terms - the worst of the decade - as we were overweight sectors hit hard by government-imposed lockdowns and underweight e-commerce stocks. The year served as a reminder that diversification is important - and it is possible, even in a concentrated portfolio. With around 25 holdings, every position must justify its place in the fund. Concentration can be a risk, but it can also be a feature - it forces clarity of thinking and avoids benchmark-hugging.
2022: Russia invades Ukraine, Inflation shock, rate rises, and a decisive China stance
Then came the inflation surge. Post-pandemic demand, supply constraints, and energy shocks collided, pushing inflation sharply higher across developed markets and forcing central banks into the fastest tightening cycle in years. Equity markets rotated: long-duration growth got hit, value and cash flow mattered again, and volatility rose. For us, 2022 also marked an important inflection point: the strategy moved to a zero weight in China from July 2022, having been meaningfully underweight up to this point. That underweight, and then complete absence, proved significant as China faced a combination of regulatory uncertainty, property sector stresses and uneven post-Covid reopening turbulence. Being structurally underweight, and then at zero, helped reduce exposure to those specific risks while allowing capital to be deployed into areas with better transparency and shareholder alignment.
2023–2026: Inflation cools but stays sticky, elections in 2024, tariffs in 2025
Inflation didn’t stay at peak levels indefinitely. It declined slowly, and not in a neat, straight line. Markets oscillated between “soft landing” optimism and “something is definitely breaking” anxiety. And alongside the macro cycle, geopolitics remained loud: wars, strategic competition, and shifting defence priorities all fed uncertainty premiums into asset prices. There were a record number of general elections around the world in 2024 and in Asia we saw key elections in Taiwan, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Korea, India and Sri Lanka.
Against that backdrop, the fund’s willingness to own gold miners helped. Gold has historically acted as a hedge when real yields fall, currencies wobble, or geopolitical stress climbs. Commodity moves don’t need to be perfectly forecast to be useful - sometimes they just need to behave differently to the rest of the portfolio when everything else is moving together. Gold has frequently played that role, and gold miners can add operational leverage to the metal’s moves. The fund has also owned a defence company—not as a geopolitical “trade,” but as part of a pragmatic recognition that defence spending and security priorities can shift structurally for long periods. In an environment where uncertainty is persistent rather than episodic, select defence exposure can offer earnings visibility and cash flow resilience.
What has driven the outperformance?
The 54% outperformance (launch to 27 February 2026) can be linked to several persistent characteristics:
- Large technology holdings that benefited from structural growth, strong balance sheets, and (often) high cash generation. In a decade where digitalisation accelerated, tech wasn’t just a sector—it was a profit pool.
- Underweight positioning in China, and then zero exposure since July 2022, avoiding a complex mix of regulatory, property, and sentiment headwinds.
- A 25-holding structure that ensures positions matter, while still allowing diversification across themes and geographies.
- Gold miners providing diversification and, at key moments, protection during risk-off phases and inflation anxiety.
- The fund objective of providing a yield premium of at least 20% versus the benchmark, reflecting a deliberate income requirement rather than accidental yield, is due to our focus on companies with strong balance sheets that can grow their dividends via growing earnings.
- Low turnover, which helps in two ways: it reduces costs and it forces decisions to be based on fundamentals, not headlines.
- A preference for large-cap, liquid stocks, helping portfolio resilience during stress events—when liquidity stops being an academic concept and starts being the only thing that matters.
A decade in one sentence
The first ten years of Jupiter Asian Income have been a case study in sticking to a disciplined income approach while navigating a world that repeatedly tested the nerves of some. The strategy’s edge hasn’t been predicting every shock - it’s been building a portfolio designed to absorb shocks, keep delivering income, and compound through cycles.
Note: The Jupiter Asian Income fund was launched by Jason Pidcock in March 2016. Jason had also launched the Newton Asian Income fund in 2005. He was joined by Sam Konrad in 2022, who moved with his family to Singapore in 2024. Jason and Sam have over 50 years’ of combined relevant experience
Jupiter Asian Income performance
| 1 month | 3 months | YTD | 1 year | 3 years p.a. | 5 years p.a. | Since inception p.a.* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jupiter Asian Income I GBP Acc | 10.1 | 18.7 | 16.8 | 44.5 | 18.9 | 14.1 | 13.4 |
| FTSE Asia Pacific ex Japan | 8.1 | 15.7 | 14.3 | 37.1 | 16.3 | 7.7 | 11.5 |
| IA Asia Pacific Excluding Japan | 8.1 | 15.8 | 14.4 | 36.3 | 13.7 | 6.3 | 10.8 |
| Quartile | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 01 Mar 17 to 31 Feb 18 | 01 Mar 18 to 31 Feb 19 | 01 Mar 19 to 31 Feb 20 | 01 Mar 20 to 31 Feb 21 | 01 Mar 21 to 31 Feb 22 | 01 Mar 22 to 31 Feb 23 | 01 Mar 23 to 31 Feb 24 | 01 Mar 24 to 31 Feb 25 | 01 Mar 25 to 31 Feb 26 | Since inception | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jupiter Asian Income Fund I GBP Acc | 4.8 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 19.5 | 7.8 | 6.8 | 6.2 | 9.5 | 44.5 | 250.8 |
| FTSE Asia Pacific ex Japan | 13.4 | -3.8 | 4.3 | 28.4 | -6.5 | -1.5 | 2.1 | 12.5 | 37.1 | 196.4 |
| IA Asia Pacific ex Japan | 14.9 | -4.0 | 3.9 | 31.5 | -6.2 | -1.6 | -2.0 | 10.1 | 36.3 | 178.1 |
Past performance does not predict future returns. Source: Morningstar, NAV to NAV, gross income reinvested, net of fees, in GBP. Jupiter Asian Income I Acc, to 28.02.26. *Since inception: 02.03.2016. Target Benchmark: FTSE Asia Pacific ex Japan. Comparator: IA Asia Pacific Excluding Japan.
Fund risks
- Currency exchange rates can cause the value of investments to fall as well as rise.
- Pricing Risk – Price movements in financial assets mean the value of assets can fall as well as rise, with this risk typically amplified in more volatile market conditions.
- Emerging Markets Risk – Emerging markets are potentially associated with higher levels of political risk and lower levels of legal protection relative to developed markets. These attributes may negatively impact asset prices.
- Market Concentration Risk (Geographical Region/Country) – Investing in a particular country or geographic region can cause the value of this investment to rise or fall more relative to investments whose focus is spread more globally in nature
- Market Concentration Risk (Number of holdings) – The Fund holds a relatively small number of stocks and may therefore be more exposed to under-performance of a particular company or group of companies compared to a portfolio that invests in a greater number of stocks.
- Derivative risk – the Fund may use derivatives to reduce costs and/or the overall risk of the Fund (this is also known as Efficient Portfolio Management or "EPM"). Derivatives involve a level of risk; however, for EPM they should not increase the overall riskiness of the Fund.
- Liquidity Risk (general) – During difficult market conditions there may not be enough investors to buy and sell certain investments. This may have an impact on the value of the Fund.
- Counterparty Risk – the risk of losses due to the default of a counterparty, e.g. on a derivatives contract or a custodian that is safeguarding the Fund's assets.
- Charges from Capital – Some or all of the Fund's charges are taken from capital. Should there not be sufficient capital growth in the Fund this may cause capital erosion.
- Stock Connect Risk – Stock Connect is governed by regulations which are subject to change. Trading limitations and restrictions on foreign ownership may constrain the Fund's ability to pursue its investment strategy. For a more detailed explanation of risk factors, please refer to the "Risk Factors“ section of the Scheme Particulars.
Footnotes
1Past performance does not predict future returns. Source: Morningstar, NAV to NAV, gross income reinvested, net of fees, in GBP. The fund’s target benchmark is the FTSE Asia Pacific ex Japan. See below for fund performance tables.
2Past performance does not predict future returns. Source: Morningstar, NAV to NAV, gross income reinvested, net of fees, gross income reinvested, net of fees, in GBP.
Important information
This marketing communication is intended for investment professionals and is not for the use or benefit of other persons, including retail investors.
This communication is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Market and exchange rate movements can cause the value of an investment to fall as well as rise, and you may get back less than originally invested. Initial charges are likely to have a greater proportionate effect on returns if investments are liquidated in the shorter term.
Past performance is no guide to the future. Quoted yields are not a guide or guarantee for the expected level of distributions to be received. The yield may fluctuate significantly during times of extreme market and economic volatility. Awards and ratings should not be taken as a recommendation.
The views expressed are those of the author at the time of writing, are not necessarily those of Jupiter as a whole and may be subject to change. This is particularly true during periods of rapidly changing market circumstances. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided but no assurance or warranties are given.
Issued by Jupiter Asset Management Limited, registered address: The Zig Zag Building, 70 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6SQ is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. No part of this presentation may be reproduced in any manner without the prior permission of JAM and JAMI.