EM Dividends Sensitive To Growth, Outperform Other Stocks

When tapering was first mentioned, there were almost immediate outflows from emerging markets as investors prepared for better opportunities in developed markets, and the defensive focus on dividends mostly gave way to growth stories. Ironically, the move away from EM growth stories and DM dividends missed the fact that chasing EM dividends is a completely distinct strategy that is more cyclical than most people realize.

“Dividend investing is a relatively new phenomenon in EM, whilst it has been around in DM for many a decade,” write Citi analysts Markus Rosgen and Yue Hin Pong. The main differences between dividends in emerging and developed markets are that, “first, in EM the sector distribution is much broader than it...