Emerging market investor beats peers with focus on consumer spending

Boston

THE last few years were a terrible time to be the manager of an emerging market stock fund - unless you were Anindya Chatterjee.

Since Mr Chatterjee started the City National Rochdale Emerging Markets Fund on Dec 14, 2011, he returned 53 per cent for investors, even as emerging market stocks declined 0.5 per cent. This year, with the MSCI Emerging Markets Index slumping 14 per cent, his US$827 million fund is down 3.1 per cent, beating 90 per cent of peers for the fourth straight year.

It's far and away the best four-year performance among 67 US-based emerging market stock funds with at least US$500 million in assets. Mr Chatterjee outperformed by focusing exclusively on Asian compa…