TERRENCE Alford has found managing a South Korean country fund a sweet and sour experience.
Dresdner RCM Global Investors put him in charge of its fund just before the Asian crisis began in July 1997, sending the Korean stock market and the won into a swan dive.
The fund took a 74.64 per cent pasting in the second half of 1997 as the benchmark Korea Composite Index dropped from 779 points in July to a December low of 340 points. But Mr Alford was able to bounce off the ropes last year to deliver a killer 162 per cent growth performance, handily outperforming a soaring market.
'I was very pleased with that,' said Mr Alford, who oversees US$17.86 million. 'I wasn't personally invested throughout but it was an excellent performance.
'We had maintained our investments in the key corporates which we thought were quality companies which perhaps could benefit from the won depreciation - they were export-orientated companies,' he said.
'We continued to build up our positions in those companies throughout the second half of 1997. When investors came back into the market they then focused on those companies.' While the stock index already has rebounded from a low of 301 points in September to a high of 630 points in January, Mr Alford believes there are more strong gains in prospect, with Korea firmly ahead in the Asian restructuring stakes.
