Investment involves risks. Please refer to the Prospectus and Hong Kong Covering Document for details including the risk factors.
1. Equity and equity-related securities risk
The value of equity and equity-related securities may be affected by various economic, political, market and issuer-specific factors and changes in investment sentiment. As a result, the value of such securities may be volatile and decline in value over short or even extended periods of time as well as rise. A fall in the value of equity and equity related securities may adversely affect the NAV of the Sub-Fund.
2. Risks relating to securities lending
Investors should note that if the borrower of securities lent by the Sub-Fund becomes insolvent or refuses to honour its obligations to return the relevant securities in a timely manner, the Sub-Fund would experience delays in recovering its securities and may possibly incur a capital loss which may adversely impact investors. The collateral received may realise at a value less than the value of the securities lent out, whether due to inaccurate pricing, adverse market movements, a deterioration in the credit rating of the issuers of the collateral, or the illiquidity of the market in which the collateral is traded. Further, delays in the return of securities on loan may restrict the ability of the Sub-Fund to meet delivery obligations under security sales or payment obligations arising from realisation requests.
3. Benchmark risk
There is no assurance that the Sub-Fund can achieve its investment objective or can always provide a dividend yield that outperforms the dividend yield of the benchmark of the Sub-Fund as specified in the investment objective. The actual dividend yield of the Sub-Fund may be lower than that of the benchmark of the Sub-Fund.
4. Currency risk
Assets of a Sub-Fund may be denominated in a currency other than the base currency (i.e. US Dollar) of the Sub-Fund. Also, a Share Class may be designated in a currency other than the base currency of the Sub-Fund. Changes in exchange rate control and changes in the exchange rate between the base currency and these currencies may affect the value of the Sub-Fund’s assets as expressed in the base currency. Adverse fluctuations in currency exchange rates can result in a decrease in return and in a loss of capital which may have an adverse impact on the Sub-Fund.
5. Derivatives risk
The use of FDIs can involve a higher level of risk, in adverse situations, the Sub-Fund’s use of FDIs may become ineffective in hedging and/or EPM and the Sub-Fund may suffer significant losses. The leverage element/component of an FDI can result in a loss significantly greater than the amount invested in the FDI by the Sub-Fund. The use of FDIs also exposes the Sub-Fund to associated risks including counterparty risk, leverage risk, liquidity risk, volatility risk and valuation risk.
6. Performance fee risk
- Performance fees may encourage the IM to make riskier investment decisions than in the absence of performance-based incentive systems. The increase in NAV which is used as a basis for the calculation of performance fees, may comprise of both realised gains and unrealised gains as at the end of the calculation period, and as a result, performance fees may be paid on unrealised gains which may subsequently never be realised by the Sub-Fund.
- The Sub-Fund does not apply any equalisation in the calculation of performance fee, therefore there may be circumstances where an investor may either be advantaged or disadvantaged as a result of the performance fee calculation methodology. Specifically, in the event of the Sub-Fund’s outperformance, an investor may be subject to a performance fee regardless of whether a loss in investment capital has been suffered by the investor.
7. Market risk
The value of the investments in the Sub-Fund may go up or down due to changing economic, political, regulatory, social development or market conditions that impact the share price of the companies that the Sub-Fund invests in. A fall in the value of the Sub-Fund’s investment may cause a fall in the NAV of the Sub-Fund. There is no guarantee of the repayment of principal.
8. Emerging market risk
Investments in emerging markets may involve increased risks and special considerations not typically associated with investments in more developed markets, such as liquidity risks, currency risks/ control, political and economic uncertainties, legal and taxation risks, settlement risks, custody risks and the likelihood of a high degree of volatility. Some of these markets may have relatively unstable governments, economies based on only a few industries and securities markets that trade only a limited number of securities. Many emerging markets do not have well-developed regulatory systems and disclosure standards may be less stringent than those of developed markets. Such risks could adversely affect the value of the Sub-Fund’s investments and the NAV of the Sub-Fund.
9. Concentration risk
The Sub-Fund’s instruments are concentrated in Asia. The Sub-Fund will be more susceptible to and may be adversely affected by any single economic market, political, policy, foreign exchange, liquidity, tax, legal or regulatory occurrence affecting the Asian market. Although the Sub-Fund has a regional investment universe, it may at times be concentrated in certain countries. The value of the Sub-Fund will be more volatile than a sub-fund that has a more diverse portfolio of investments.
10. Liquidity risk
Any security could become hard to value or to sell at a desired time and price, increasing the risk of investment losses.
11. Share Class Hedging Risk
Financial swaps, futures, forward currency exchange contracts, options and other derivative transactions may be used to preserve the value of the hedged share class currency against the base currency of the Sub Fund. The effects (gains/losses) of the hedging will be reflected in the NAV of the share class and investors in the share class will bear any expenses incurred arising from the hedge. Such hedging may protect investors against a decrease in the value of the base currency of the Sub-Fund but will also limit the investors from any potential gain if the base currency rise against the hedged share class currency.
12. Hedging risk
Any attempts to reduce certain risks may not work as intended. Any measures that the Sub-Fund takes that are designed to offset specific risks may work imperfectly, may not be feasible at times, or may fail completely. To the extent that no hedge exists, the Sub-Fund or share class will be exposed to all risks that the hedge would have protected against.
13. Risk in payment of distributions
Payment of distributions out of capital amounts to a return or withdrawal of part of an investor’s original investment or from any capital gains attributable to that original investment. This may result in capital erosion and a reduction in the potential for long-term capital growth. Any distributions involving payment of distributions out of a Share Class’ capital or payment of distributions effectively out of a Share Class’ capital (as the case may be) may result in an immediate reduction of the NAV per share of the Share Class.