Alma Eikoh Japan Large Cap Equity Fund
Overview
Alma Eikoh Japan Large Cap Equity is a long only fund investing in Japanese large cap stocks.
The fund is managed internally by Alma Capital London.
Share Class
NAV
Cumulative Performance (%)
Fund Inception 12 June 2014
| Daily | Monthly | Ytd | 1Yr | 3Yr | 5Yr | Incept. | Incept.Date |
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The performance data shown represents past performance. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance quoted. The investment return and the principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost.
Strategy & Manager
Fund Strategy
The Strategy seeks long-term capital growth by investing in Japanese large cap stocks, typically with market capitalisation in excess of US$ 1bn. The team analyses long term company fundamentals through extensive in-house bottom up research with strong risk management ethos. At the heart of the philosophy is a deep-seated knowledge and understanding of the Japanese companies that the Eikoh team invests in. Portfolio of around 30 companies which are well managed, profitable and with good prospects.
Investment Manager
Alma Capital London is an FCA-authorised fund management company, which is a subsidiary of Alma Capital Investment Management, a Luxembourg-based independent management company founded in 2006.
Key Persons
James Pulsford
Portfolio Manager
James started his career at Morgan Grenfell in 1987, moving to Japan shortly thereafter. During his 12 years in Tokyo, he went on to become the Head of the Small Cap Equity team. James returned to London in 1999 where he managed a number of Japanese large cap products for what became Deutsche Asset Management. As well as various Japanese long only mandates, James has developed the Equilibria Japan long/short strategy at this time. James now has over 42 years’ experience investing in Japan and speaks fluent Japanese. He holds a BA from Oxford University.
Tom Grew
Portfolio Manager
Tom started his career in management consulting before moving to Eikoh Research Investment Management (ERIM) in 2018, an independent asset management company led by James Pulsford established as a result of the spin out of the Japanese Equity Team from Deutsche Asset Management. At ERIM, he worked on the long-only and hedge funds management. Tom holds a BA from Cambridge University and has completed the CFA syllabus.
Statistics & Commentary
Performance
The performance data shown represents past performance. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted. The investment return and the principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost.
Portfolio Characteristics
Top 10 Position Details
Investment Manager's Commentary
as of 30/10/2026Market Review and Outlook
The Topix fell by 3.48% in October, its largest monthly decline since the onset of the Iran conflict and Strait of Hormuz crisis in March of this year. The sell-off was heavily driven by concerns around the sustainability and growth of the AI data centre investment cycle which has been the major driver of equity markets so far this year. In the first three quarters of 2026, corporate debt issuance for AI investment alone in the US was over $500bn and fresh debt and equity financing continued into October with major AI players SpaceX, Broadcom, Alphabet, Meta and others announcing new issues. Throughout the year, market participants have been debating and re-appraising the sustainability of this cycle but in October concerns outweighed bullishness with several fundraising efforts thwarted or downgraded and equity markets dramatically re-pricing related stocks. On October the 15th it was confirmed that Anthropic’s upcoming IPO target valuation would drop from $2tn to $1.5tn, the same day CoreWeave, the AI Neocloud player, saw its debt move into distressed territory and Australian Neocloud Firmus pulled its IPO. At the end of the month it was announced OpenAI had cut the size of its latest fundraising round from $30bn to $20bn. These fears resulted in 6.7% drop in the Nasdaq over the month, a 16.2% drop in the heavily semiconductor-geared KOSPI index and substantial declines in Japan’s related stocks. Data from Morgan Stanley’s prime brokerage shows extreme de-grossing by hedge funds who now appear to be underweight AI Infrastructure stocks relative to index weights. The other side of this global markets story was a ‘flight to safety’ and most notably a sharp reversal in bond yields which have risen sharply this year, especially in September. The US yield on 10yr government bonds dropped from 5.3% to 4.9% and in Japan the 10yr yield dropped from 3.1% to 2.8% with currency markets quiet over the month; the Yen moving from Y/$ 157.4 to 157.5. In this context with the yield curve flattening, bank stocks underperformed with defensive areas of the market and some perceived ‘AI Losers’ like software and cybersecurity stocks, also helped by a spate of hacking incidents, leading the market. Topix leading sectors included Software & Services, Pharmaceuticals, Marine, Retail Trade and Insurance with laggards including Nonferrous Metals, Machinery, Banks and Semiconductors.
In more Japan specific news, there was a modest acceleration in inflation data with the September core CPI reading coming in at 2.1% having been closer to 1.7% level in recent months. After having hiked the base rate to 1.25% at its September meeting the BOJ decided to hold rates in October though commentary did nothing to change market expectations for a December hike, currently priced at over 80% by the options market. Domestic industrial readings continued to show a positive environment with the Japan Composite PMI coming in at 52.3 for October, the same as September, machine tool orders up 60.4% YoY, and the October Reuters Tankan manufacturing index reaching a new high of +22. The government continues to support the domestic economy and on the 29th of October it was reported METI is looking to expand a framework for providing additional funds to commercial banks with partial loss guarantees and prime minister Takaichi’s administration reiterated its target for more than Y370trn in public and private investment in strategic sectors to 2040.
In descending order of size, key sector overweights are Technology Hardware & Equipment, Commercial & Professional Services, Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment, Healthcare Equipment & Services and Software & Services. Key underweights are Automobiles & Components, Insurance, Transportation, Food, Beverage & Tobacco and Capital Goods. The fund continues to seek a balance between taking exposure to the opportunities from the vast AI Capex cycle that is underway as well as remaining cautious with regards to its sustainability and equity valuations. By our own estimates, the fund has exposure of 17% vs the Topix 12.3% in direct AI capex beneficiaries but this is counterbalanced by the fund having 10.8% in stocks that we deem to be the other side of the ‘AI trade’ or ‘AI Losers’ vs the Topix weighting of 6.1%. The sweeping victory by the Democrats in the mid-term elections in the USA, taking control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, is likely to slow the pace of new data centre development in the US, with the approval process set to become harder in a number of key States. Globally, however, the pace of AI adoption remains high and investment in this area in China is expected to continue to grow very strongly which should help support the ongoing expansion of the semiconductor and wafer fabrication equipment markets. While the external environment and Geopolitics remain volatile, the Takaichi led government offers a relatively stable administration, clearly focused on enhancing economic growth, and Japan’s domestic economic situation remains encouraging.
Fund
The fund fell by -4.00% (JPY share class) in October, underperforming the Topix (dividends reinvested) by -0.52%.
The fund’s underperformance over the month was driven by both sector allocation and stock selection. This largely reflected a market rotation out of AI/data centre supply chain names and into defensive laggards. Sector allocation was hurt by overweight positions in Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment and Technology Hardware & Equipment, as well as a lack of exposure to Insurance, Transportation, Consumer Discretionary Distribution & Retail, and Food, Beverage & Tobacco. These losses were partly offset by gains from overweights in Commercial & Professional Services, Health Care Equipment & Services and Software & Services, and the underweight in Telecommunication Services, where SoftBank Group, an investor in OpenAI and Arm, represents over 40% of the industry sector. In stock selection, the fund’s AI holdings in optical and thermal component manufacturer Furukawa Electric and NAND flash memory specialist Kioxia gave back some of their outperformance in the first half of the year. Factory automation company Omron also retreated from its recent high following strong Q1 results in August, while system integrator Fujitsu fell sharply on the last trading day of the month after reporting weak results, citing one-off factors. On the positive side, technology and medical conglomerate Fujifilm and telecommunications operator KDDI outperformed their respective sectors, reflecting the broader preference for defensives over cyclicals and particularly AI names. Consulting and system integration company Nomura Research Institute (NRI) also outperformed peers in Software & Services as cybersecurity attracted greater market attention following several hacking and data leak incidents in Japan. This benefited NRI given its specialist cybersecurity subsidiary. NRI’s results announced at month-end subsequently confirmed strong demand, particularly for financial IT spending and cybersecurity consulting.
In October, following strong share price performance after its Q1 results, we exited IVD instruments and reagents manufacturer Sysmex and switched into analytical equipment maker Shimadzu, where we see a more attractive risk-reward profile. We believe Shimadzu’s fundamentals are improving in Japan and China, with scope to grow ahead of the analysis and measurement market given its relatively low penetration in the US. We also sold our position in industrial conglomerate Mitsubishi Electric and bought component maker TDK after it’s sharp sell-off. TDK’s broad product range across batteries, MLCCs, aluminium capacitors and inductors embedded in substrates appears well positioned to benefit from the rise in data centre power supply demand. Finally, we bought a position in antibody-drug conjugate specialist Daiichi Sankyo. We believe investor expectations for the AVANZAR trial are low, offering significant re-rating potential if the trial itself succeeds or if other news allows investors to re-evaluate the potential of Datroway as a second top tier cancer technology alongside Enhertu
Facts & Documents
Facts
Fund Domicile: Luxembourg
Fund Type: UCITS SICAV
Fund Launch: 12 June 2014
Base Currency: JPY
Depositary, Administrator, Transfert Agent: BNP Paribas SA
Dealing: Each day with 1-day notice
Cut-off time: 12 pm CET
Management Company: Alma Capital Investment Management (LU)
Investment Manager: Alma Capital Investment Management (LU)
Fund Managers: James Pulsford, Tom Grew
Countries where the fund is registered:
Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Switzerland, Singapore, Belgium, Ireland, Spain
Sustainability-related disclosures:
Environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) criteria have been integrated in the investment decision-making process. An ESG analysis is conducted for all target companies. This is done prior to any investment, but also on an ongoing basis. In cases where the ESG analysis process flags material sustainability risks for a particular investment, the Investment Manager will not consider making the investment, and will look to divest when such material sustainability risks arise for a particular investment. No index has been designated as a reference benchmark for this sub-fund. Further information can be found in the prospectus of the sub-fund. The extent to which the above-mentioned characteristics are met will be included in the annual report of the fund, as from the first report issued after 1 January 2022.
Identifiers:
Institutional USD Hedged Capitalisation share class
ISIN: LU1013117160
Ticker: AEJIUHA LX
Launch: 12 Jun 2014
Institutional GBP Hedged Capitalisation share class
ISIN: LU1013116949
Ticker: AEJIGHA LX
Launch: 12 Jun 2014
Institutional EUR Hedged Capitalisation share class
ISIN: LU1013116782
Ticker: AEJIEHA LX
Launch: 10 Dec 2014
Institutional JPY Capitalisation share class
ISIN: LU1013116519
Ticker: AEJPIJA LX
Launch: 10 Dec 2014
Institutional GBP Unhedged Capitalisation share class
ISIN: LU1152097108
Ticker: AEKJEGC LX
Launch: 17 Feb 2015
Institutional EUR Unhedged Distribution share class
ISIN: LU1870374920
Ticker: AEJLIED LX
Launch: 8 Mar 2019
Institutional EUR Unhedged Capitalisation share class
ISIN: LU1870374508
Ticker: AEJLIEC LX
Launch: 4 Feb 2019
Retail Clean JPY Capitalisation share class
ISIN: LU1744752707
Ticker: AEJRCJC LX
Launch: 28 Apr 2022
Retail JPY Capitalisation share class
ISIN: LU1013117327
Ticker: AEJPRJA LX
Launch: 28 Apr 2022
Documents
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