Aaron Boesky, the chief executive of Marco Polo Pure Asset Management, is upbeat about mainland equities despite all the data on the growth slowdown and market declines. He's not just taking a long-term view; he thinks the turnaround is around the corner.
'The A-share market has been going up recently on days bad news has been released, and that's a big change,' says Boesky from his office in Central. The talkative American, 37, co-founded his firm's sole fund, the Marco Polo Pure China Fund, in 2004 with Chris Tang, Marco Polo's chief investment officer.
Boesky, cousin to convicted inside trader Ivan Boesky (the inspiration for the Gordon Gekko character in the 1987 film Wall Street), launched the fund with backing from his mother's side of the family, the Rosenbergs, an old-money clan with a long record of investing in the US.
The Marco Polo fund invests solely in A-shares (yuan-denominated, mainland-listed stocks). The fund is completely identified with this market, which means life is easy when the market is rising and tough in decline, as has been the case for the past few years.
Marco Polo invests through intermediaries that belong to China's qualified foreign institutional investor (QFII) scheme. While Marco Polo does not have any QFII quota of its own, all its money is invested through QFII-approved brokers, says Boesky.
Tang, who manages the US$80 million fund, focuses on a portfolio of between 22 and 28 stocks. The fund does not track an index but simply invests in favoured firms.
