ASIA vs AVSE

ASIAFMatthews Pacific Tiger Active ETF ASIA

AVSEAAvantis Responsible Emerging Markets Equity ETF

In short

ASIA Most international ETFs spread you across the developed world. ASIA does one job: active stock-picking across the Asia-Pacific, from region specialist Matthews, inside a plain-vanilla 1940 Act ETF wrapper.

AVSE Avantis's emerging markets workhorse with a values filter bolted on: the same profitability tilt and thousands-of-stocks build as its flagship EM fund, at the same 0.33% fee, minus the issuers its team flags on ESG grounds.

Stated mandate

ASIA The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation through an Asia-focused active equity strategy.

AVSE The fund is an actively managed emerging-markets equity strategy that seeks to identify securities with higher expected returns while excluding issuers that raise concerns under the portfolio team's environmental, social, and governance evaluation.

Why people hold it

• ASIA One region, one job: Asia-Pacific equities chosen actively, with long-term capital appreciation as the stated objective. The highest-graded funds in its group are broad developed-international instead.
• Active by design. There's no index to shadow, so the portfolio reflects the manager's Asia growth calls rather than a benchmark's country and sector weights.
• Ordinary ETF plumbing around a specialist strategy: a registered 1940 Act fund with the usual intraday trading and creation/redemption mechanics.

• AVSE Charges 0.33% a year, roughly half the typical fee among actively managed emerging markets funds. The cost drag stays out of the way of the strategy.
• The screen trims rather than concentrates: the portfolio still spans thousands of emerging markets stocks, not a short list of approved names.avantisinvestors.com
• Active in the Avantis sense: a systematic tilt toward more profitable companies, not a manager's hunches about which stocks pop next.
• Priced level with Avantis's mainstream EM funds (AVEM, AVXC) and JPMorgan's JEMA at 0.33%, and one of the stronger builds in the active EM group.

Worth knowing

• ASIA Fees run 0.79% a year against a 0.60% peer-group median, and far above systematic rivals like DFIC (0.22%) and AVDE (0.23%). Hands-on Asia research carries a price tag.
• Thinly traded with a modest asset base, which can mean wider bid-ask spreads at the moment you trade.
• Launched in 2023, so the ETF's own record is short, and payouts arrive only annually or semiannually. This is a growth mandate, not an income one.

• AVSE Thinly traded next to the index-fund giants of emerging markets, so bid-ask spreads can widen and larger orders need care.
• The ESG exclusions are the portfolio team's own judgment calls, so the holdings and the results will drift from a plain broad EM benchmark.
• Emerging markets equity brings currency swings and country-level political risk, and this fund holds that exposure directly. Pays quarterly.

Full ASIA profile⁠

Full AVSE profile⁠