Fidelity overtakes JP Morgan in SE Asia with $2.4B fund

Fidelity's ASEAN fund attracted net inflows of around $460 million in the last three months alone to become the largest fund focusing on the region.

This pushed Fidelity past $2 billion in size and overtake a long-time leading rival product from J.P. Morgan.

A prolonged period of weak performance has driven some investors away from J.P. Morgan Asset Management's $2 billion JF ASEAN Fund, leading to an estimated $78 million in outflows in 2012 and benefitting the rival Fidelity product, Lipper data showed.

The Fidelity Funds-ASEAN has grabbed $814 million, nearly three-fourths of the estimated $1 billion of net inflows into funds investing in all of Southeast Asia this year.

''This may be attributed to the ability of Fidelity's fund to consistently deliver better returns than the JF fund, particularly since the first quarter of 2011,'' said Eric Wong, head of Lipper Hong Kong research.

Fidelity's fund managed $2.4 billion at the end of August, while the one from J.P. Morgan had just over $2 billion. They are the only two offshore ASEAN-focused stock funds with assets of more than $2 billion.

''We saw some profit-taking in the first quarter since ASEAN economies have performed well since the global financial crisis,'' Pauline Ng, a managing director at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said in an e-mail. ''Over the second quarter ending June 30th, we have seen net inflows again.''