Asia Dragon (DGN), formerly known as Edinburgh Dragon, has generated strong absolute and relative performance over the past five years from a quality growth approach to investing in Asia ex-Japan equities.
The period has seen a return to form for the trust after a difficult 2013-2015 period. A more balanced portfolio, wider exposure to different branches of technology and more ruthlessness in selling out of positions have seen NAV returns well in excess of the benchmark, as we discuss in the performance section. Exposure to countries hard hit by the pandemic in Q1 2020 hurt relative performance but DGN has outperformed in the rebound.
DGN has a portfolio well-balanced across different sectors of the economy. This includes ‘new economy’ sectors such as e-commerce, software and hardware as well as ‘old economy’ sectors such as banks and real estate. Typically, the portfolio trades on a premium valuation versus the index, with higher expected growth and lower net debt (see portfolio section).
The trust is managed by Adrian Lim and Pruksa Iamthongthong of the Aberdeen Standard Asian Equities Team. They take a long-term perspective on their investments, and consequently have long embedded ESG concerns within their stock selection process. In particular, they look for companies with trustworthy management teams with a track record of good capital allocation and respect for minority shareholders (see ESG section).
Despite its strong recent performance, DGN remains on a discount of 9%. This compares to the five-year average of 12% but is wide when compared to the sector average of just 4.3%.


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Asia Dragon - Overview
- Published:
24 Feb 2021 -
Author:
Thomas McMahon, CFA -
Pages:
7 -
Asia Dragon (DGN), formerly known as Edinburgh Dragon, has generated strong absolute and relative performance over the past five years from a quality growth approach to investing in Asia ex-Japan equities.
The period has seen a return to form for the trust after a difficult 2013-2015 period. A more balanced portfolio, wider exposure to different branches of technology and more ruthlessness in selling out of positions have seen NAV returns well in excess of the benchmark, as we discuss in the performance section. Exposure to countries hard hit by the pandemic in Q1 2020 hurt relative performance but DGN has outperformed in the rebound.
DGN has a portfolio well-balanced across different sectors of the economy. This includes ‘new economy’ sectors such as e-commerce, software and hardware as well as ‘old economy’ sectors such as banks and real estate. Typically, the portfolio trades on a premium valuation versus the index, with higher expected growth and lower net debt (see portfolio section).
The trust is managed by Adrian Lim and Pruksa Iamthongthong of the Aberdeen Standard Asian Equities Team. They take a long-term perspective on their investments, and consequently have long embedded ESG concerns within their stock selection process. In particular, they look for companies with trustworthy management teams with a track record of good capital allocation and respect for minority shareholders (see ESG section).
Despite its strong recent performance, DGN remains on a discount of 9%. This compares to the five-year average of 12% but is wide when compared to the sector average of just 4.3%.