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Matthews China Fund
MCHFX

Snapshot
  • High-conviction equity portfolio seeks companies benefiting from China’s domestic consumption
  • All-cap fundamental GARP approach driven by on-the-ground, proprietary research
  • Combines long-term core holdings with more opportunistic ideas to provide consistency through cycles

02/19/1998

Inception Date

-18.21%

YTD Return

(as of 12/01/2023)

$11.86

NAV

(as of 12/01/2023)

-0.11

1 Day NAV Change

(as of 12/01/2023)

Objective

Long-term capital appreciation

Strategy

Under normal circumstances, the Matthews China Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing at least 80% of its net assets, which include borrowings for investment purposes, in the common and preferred stocks of companies located in China. The Fund seeks to invest in companies capable of sustainable growth based on the fundamental characteristics of those companies, including balance sheet information; number of employees; size and stability of cash flow; management’s depth, adaptability and integrity; product lines; marketing strategies; corporate governance; and financial health.

Risks

Investments in Asian securities may involve risks such as social and political instability, market illiquidity, exchange-rate fluctuations, a high level of volatility and limited regulation. Investing in emerging markets involves different and greater risks, as these countries are substantially smaller, less liquid and more volatile than securities markets in more developed markets. In addition, investments in a single-country fund, which is considered a non-diversified fund, may be subject to a higher degree of market risk than diversified funds because of concentration in a specific country.

These and other risks associated with investing in the Fund can be found in the prospectus.

Fund Facts
Inception Date 02/19/1998
Fund Assets $527.94 million (10/31/2023)
Currency USD
Ticker MCHFX
Cusip 577-130-701
Portfolio Turnover 49.4%
Benchmark MSCI China Index MSCI China All Shares Index
Geographic Focus China - China includes its administrative and other districts, such as Hong Kong
Fees & Expenses
Gross Expense Ratio 1.12%

Performance

  • Monthly
  • Quarterly
  • Calendar Year
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As of 10/31/2023
Average Annual Total Returns
Name 1MO 3MO YTD 1YR 3YR 5YR 10YR Since Inception Inception Date
Matthews China Fund - MCHFX
02/19/1998
MCHFX
-5.51% -17.70% -19.52% 7.76% -16.84% 0.64% 2.03% 7.25%
MSCI China Index
-4.26% -15.22% -11.08% 21.35% -16.82% -2.50% 1.16% 2.67%
MSCI China All Shares Index
-3.80% -14.21% -11.35% 11.86% -13.80% 0.20% n.a. n.a.
As of 09/30/2023
Average Annual Total Returns
Name 1MO 3MO YTD 1YR 3YR 5YR 10YR Since Inception Inception Date
Matthews China Fund - MCHFX
02/19/1998
MCHFX
-4.93% -2.45% -14.83% -0.36% -13.97% -0.99% 2.92% 7.51%
MSCI China Index
-2.74% -1.83% -7.13% 5.44% -14.14% -4.02% 1.85% 2.85%
MSCI China All Shares Index
-2.42% -2.71% -7.84% 0.56% -11.32% -1.32% n.a. n.a.
For the years ended December 31st
Name 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
Matthews China Fund - MCHFX
MCHFX
-24.40% -12.26% 43.05% 34.56% -21.42% 59.37% -5.18% 2.41% -4.42% 6.84%
MSCI China Index
-21.80% -21.64% 29.67% 23.66% -18.75% 54.33% 1.11% -7.62% 8.26% 3.96%
MSCI China All Shares Index
-23.47% -12.80% 33.61% 27.87% -23.15% 41.43% -7.69% -2.88% n.a. n.a.

MSCI China Index since inception value calculated from 2/28/98.

Source: BNY Mellon Investment Servicing (US) Inc. All performance is in US$.

Assumes reinvestment of all dividends and/or distributions before taxes. All performance quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate with market conditions so that when redeemed, shares may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the return figures quoted. Returns would have been lower if certain of the Fund’s fees and expenses had not been waived. Performance differences between the Institutional class and the Investor class may arise due to differences in fees charged to each class.

Additional performance, attribution, liquidity, value at risk (VaR), security classification and holdings information is available on request for certain time periods.

Growth of a Hypothetical $10,000 Investment Since Inception

(as of 09/30/2023)

Source: BNY Mellon Investment Servicing (US) Inc. All performance is in US$.

The performance data and graph do not reflect the deduction of taxes that a shareholder would pay on dividends, capital gain distributions or redemption of fund shares.

Ratings

  • OVERALL
  • out of 101 funds
  • 3 YEAR
  • out of 101 funds
  • 5 YEAR
  • out of 79 funds
  • 10 YEAR
  • out of 55 funds
  • 1 YEAR
  • 2nd
  • 37 out of 109 funds
  • 3 YEAR
  • 3rd
  • 63 out of 91 funds
  • 5 YEAR
  • 2nd
  • 31 out of 74 funds
  • 10 YEAR
  • 2nd
  • 16 out of 49 funds
  • SINCE INCEPTION
  • 1st
  • 3 out of 14 funds

Ratings agency calculation methodology

Portfolio Managers

Andrew  Mattock, CFA photo
Andrew Mattock, CFA

Lead Manager

Winnie  Chwang photo
Winnie Chwang

Co-Manager

Sherwood  Zhang, CFA photo
Sherwood Zhang, CFA

Co-Manager

Portfolio Characteristics

(as of 09/30/2023)
Fund Benchmark
Number of Positions 50 765
Weighted Average Market Cap $97.4 billion $116.3 billion
Active Share 62.5 n.a.
P/E using FY1 estimates 12.3x 10.1x
P/E using FY2 estimates 10.3x 9.0x
Price/Cash Flow 7.8 5.6
Price/Book 1.4 1.3
Return On Equity 12.3 11.6
EPS Growth (3 Yr) 17.2% 13.6%

Sources: Factset Research Systems, Inc.

Risk Metrics (3 Yr Return)

(as of 09/30/2023)
1.04%
Alpha
1.03
Beta
111.21%
Upside Capture
103.00%
Downside Capture
-0.49
Sharpe Ratio
0.02
Information Ratio
8.89%
Tracking Error
92.30

Fund Risk Metrics are reflective of Investor share class.

Sources: Zephyr StyleADVISOR

Top 10 Holdings

(as of 10/31/2023)
Name Sector % Net Assets
Alibaba Group Holding, Ltd. Consumer Discretionary 8.8
Tencent Holdings, Ltd. Communication Services 8.6
PDD Holdings, Inc. Consumer Discretionary 6.1
Meituan Class B Consumer Discretionary 5.0
China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd. Financials 4.3
JD.com, Inc. Consumer Discretionary 4.1
KE Holdings, Inc. Real Estate 3.5
China International Capital Corp., Ltd. Financials 3.4
CITIC Securities Co., Ltd. Financials 3.3
Wuxi Biologics Cayman, Inc. Health Care 2.4
TOTAL 49.5

Top 10 holdings may combine more than one security from the same issuer and related depositary receipts.

Source: BNY Mellon Investment Servicing (US) Inc.

Portfolio Breakdown (%)

(as of 09/30/2023)
  • Sector Allocation
  • Market Cap Exposure
  • China Exposure
Sector Fund Benchmark Difference
Consumer Discretionary 34.8 30.5 4.3
Financials 19.7 15.7 4.0
Communication Services 13.9 20.1 -6.2
Industrials 8.2 5.2 3.0
Real Estate 5.6 2.8 2.8
Consumer Staples 5.4 5.5 -0.1
Information Technology 5.1 5.8 -0.7
Health Care 4.9 5.6 -0.7
Energy 1.8 3.1 -1.3
Utilities 1.0 2.3 -1.3
Materials 0.0 3.3 -3.3
Liabilities in Excess of Cash and Other Assets -0.4 0.0 -0.4

Sector data based on MSCI’s revised Global Industry Classification Standards. For more details, visit www.msci.com.

Equity market cap of issuer Fund Benchmark Difference
Mega Cap (over $25B) 66.8 63.9 2.9
Large Cap ($10B-$25B) 21.1 18.6 2.5
Mid Cap ($3B-$10B) 8.9 15.0 -6.1
Small Cap (under $3B) 3.6 2.5 1.1
Liabilities in Excess of Cash and Other Assets -0.4 0.0 -0.4
China Exposure Portfolio Weight
Hong Kong Listed Companies 57.7
Mainland China Listed Companies 27.6
ADR/GDR 14.0
Other 1.1
Liabilities in Excess of Cash and Other Assets -0.4

Mainland China listed companies includes A Share and B Shares. A Shares are Mainland Chinese companies incorporated in China and listed on the Shanghai or Shenzhen exchanges, available mostly to local Chinese investors and qualified institutional investors. B Shares are mainland Chinese companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, available to both Chinese and non-Chinese investors. ADRs are American Depositary Receipts and GDRs are Global Depositary Receipts. Hong Kong Listed Companies include SAR (Hong Kong) companies, China-affiliated corporations, and H Shares. SAR companies are companies that conduct business in Hong Kong and/or mainland China. China-affiliated corporations [CAC], also known as "Red Chips," are mainland China companies with partial state ownership listed in Hong Kong, and incorporated in Hong Kong. H Shares are mainland Chinese companies listed on the Hong Kong exchange but incorporated in mainland China. Other represents Chinese companies listed in other countries or non-China companies with a majority of revenue coming from China such as Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and the United States or other non-China companies.

Source: FactSet Research Systems.

Percentage values in data are rounded to the nearest tenth of one percent, so the values may not sum to 100% due to rounding. Percentage values may be derived from different data sources and may not be consistent with other Fund literature.

Distributions

Record Date Ex, Pay and
Reinvest Date
Ordinary
Income
Short Term
Capital Gains
Long Term
Capital Gains
Total Distributions
Per Share
% of NAV Nondividend Distribution (Return of Capital)
12/13/2022 12/14/2022 $0.00000 $0.00000 $1.09205 $1.09205 6.8% N.A.
View History

 

There is no guarantee that the Fund will pay or continue to pay distributions. 

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate with changing market conditions so that shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost.

Commentary

September 30, 2023

For the quarter ending September 30, 2023, the Matthews China Fund returned -2.45% (Investor Class) and -2.37% (Institutional Class), while its benchmark, the MSCI China Index returned -1.83%.

Market Environment:  

The overall environment for China remained challenging as economic data continued to disappoint while negative news about the real estate sector re-emerged. On a more optimistic note, the cadence of policy announcements aimed at supporting China’s property market and domestic consumption seems to make it clear that the government is intent on getting the economy moving again.

Geopolitical engagement between U.S. and Chinese leaders continued as the Chinese government welcomed Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to advance talks between the superpowers on topics with a focus on re-opening lines of communication between the two countries to resolve problematic issues surrounding trade and intellectual property. There is also the possibility of Xi Jinping will be joining President Biden at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in November.

Performance Contributors and Detractors:

From a sector perspective both financials and communication services contributed the most to relative performance during the quarter. Financials outperformed given its defensiveness in what has still be choppy markets. Communications services outperformed given our underweight in Tencent which underperformed during the quarter. On the other hand, both industrials and real estate underperformed. The industrials sector’s underperformance was led by Sungrow Power Supply Company, a solar component manufacturer, and battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology as the market turned more conservative on both electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage system (ESS) battery growth and demand. Real estate continued to underperform given still a challenging time for the industry as it finds a floor on sales declines.

Among individual holdings, Pinduoduo (PDD), one of China’s largest e-commerce platforms that started its businesses with a focus on lower-tier city, price sensitive consumers directly through its interactive shopping experience, was the top contributor to performance. PDD continued to deliver strong results during the quarter in what has been a weaker eCommerce market in China. Gross merchandize value (GMV) growth and monetization for PDD has remained on track. Alibaba, the largest e-commerce platform in China was another contributor to performance. The company did well given its relative defensiveness owing to cheap valuations. Pharmaceutical company Wuxi Biologics, also performed well given its relative defensiveness as one of China’s health care names with larger foreign exposure. Anti-corruption efforts are currently underway in China’s health care industry which makes companies with sizable domestic revenues more susceptible to any negative industry impact.

On the other hand, property developer CIFI was the top detractor to performance. CIFI recently resumed trading after a long suspension and its negative share price performance, in our view, is an accumulated impact from the period when the stock was suspended. Consumer internet giant Tencent Holdings was another detractor. Tencent experienced profit taking given how well the stock has held up in the earlier half of the year, and while growth has been resilient, valuations were likely on the richer side. E-commerce and logistics company JD.com also detracted given a still weak earnings profile. We expect this year’s consumer durable goods spending to remain challenged given a last year’s high base last year, but feel that a lot of pessimism is currently baked into the stock.

Notable Portfolio Changes:

Overall, the portfolio maintained a consistent sector exposure. During the quarter, we slightly increased allocation to consumer discretionary as we see value in platform companies, and slightly trimmed the portfolio’s A-shares with an increase in U.S. ADRs driven by the addition of good quality names such as fast food restaurant company YUM China and travel services company Trip.com. At the end of the quarter, the portfolio was overweighted versus the benchmark in financials given the portfolio’s capital market reform plays, that we believe will be beneficial from equity market deepening and slightly underweighted information technology given relatively high valuation and maintained zero exposure to materials as we haven’t found as many compelling ideas in this more cyclical part of the Chinese market. Many materials and mining companies also have environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns.

Outlook:

China continues to be grinding its way through a slow economic recovery with continued challenges including a weak property market, weak global demand and weak business confidence. While the government has not offered any bazooka stimulus, more support for the property market was seen throughout the quarter ending in September. Portfolio Managers believe the government continues to be in a position to support its economy further if needed.

Looking into the final quarter of the year, it is hard to see a major recovery in economic growth although comparables will be more favorable. Portfolio Managers will look for the bottoming of the property market and increased efforts to boost business confidence. All in, things are not collapsing but Portfolio Managers are mindful that major catalysts for recovery remain at bay given all of the above, and a still challenging geopolitical environment.

Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) measures the total value of goods sold across a given period.

View the Fund’s Top 10 holdings as of September 30, 2023. Current and future holdings are subject to change and risk.

Average Annual Total Returns - MCHFX as of 09/30/2023
1YR 3YR 5YR 10YR Since Inception Inception Date
-0.36% -13.97% -0.99% 2.92% 7.51% 02/19/1998

All performance quoted is past performance and is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate with changing market conditions so that shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the return figures quoted. Returns would have been lower if certain of the Fund's fees and expenses had not been waived. Please see the Fund's most recent month-end performance.

Fees & Expenses
Gross Expense Ratio 1.12%

Investments in Asian securities may involve risks such as social and political instability, market illiquidity, exchange-rate fluctuations, a high level of volatility and limited regulation. Investing in emerging markets involves different and greater risks, as these countries are substantially smaller, less liquid and more volatile than securities markets in more developed markets. In addition, investments in a single-country fund, which is considered a non-diversified fund, may be subject to a higher degree of market risk than diversified funds because of concentration in a specific country.

 

Visit our Glossary of Terms page for definitions and additional information.

Index Definitions

The information contained herein has been derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate at the time of compilation, but no representation or warranty (express or implied) is made as to the accuracy or completeness of any of this information. Neither the funds nor the Investment Advisor accept any liability for losses either direct or consequential caused by the use of this information.

The views and opinions in the commentary were as of the report date, subject to change and may not reflect current views. They are not guarantees of performance or investment results and should not be taken as investment advice. Investment decisions reflect a variety of factors, and the managers reserve the right to change their views about individual stocks, sectors, and the markets at any time. As a result, the views expressed should not be relied upon as a forecast of the Fund's future investment intent. It should not be assumed that any investment will be profitable or will equal the performance of any securities or any sectors mentioned herein. The information does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any securities mentioned.