3 Africa-Focused Funds: An Analysis from Inception to the Present
T. Rowe Price Africa & Middle East Fund
In the previous article, we looked at the Nile Pan Africa A Fund (NAFAX). In this article, we’ll see how the T. Rowe Price Africa & Middle East Fund (TRAMX) is performing. TRAMX invests 80% of its assets in the stocks of countries based in Africa and the Middle East.
As of September 30, 2015, TRAMX has its largest regional exposure in South Africa. The fund has an allocation of 34.9% in South Africa, 23.4% in Saudi Arabia, 9.9% in UAE (United Arab Emirates), and 9.8% in Egypt. The graph below shows the fund’s country exposure.
Portfolio composition
The above graph shows the sectoral composition of TRAMX’s portfolio. According to the latest complete portfolio information as of September 30, 2015, the financial sector was TRAMX’s largest holding with a 41.4% exposure. TRAMX has no exposure to the energy and information technology sectors.
As of September 30, 2015, TRAMX’s portfolio had a total of 70 securities. The top individual holding of TRAMX was Naspers, which makes up 8.3% of the portfolio. The top ten holdings form 35.5% of the portfolio.
Abysmal returns this year
The above chart shows average annual returns for TRAMX as of November 6, 2015. The average annual return is the arithmetic mean of the gross returns over the specific number of years. In the last one year, TRAMX has given a return of -19.5%. Over a three-year period, the average annual return was 6.9%. The fund has given a return of 4.3% over a five-year period. The return since the fund’s inception in September 2007 is about 0.2%.
TRAMX’s portfolio has one exchange-traded South African ADR (American depositary receipt): AngloGold Ashanti (AU). Some other South African ADRs are Sasol (SSL) and Gold Fields (GFI).
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