Devan Kaloo and his team’s £3.8bn fund only closed to new money a matter of months ago, due to concerns about capacity, but outflows exceeding £150m in the last three months, according to FE data, could prompt the group to make the fund available again via platforms.
"Aberdeen's Emerging Markets and Latin American funds could have gone down the most," he said. "I think you could see them go back on Cofunds."McDermott says the decision for removing the fund from the major platform was primarily operational and as a result he expects the decision will be reversed, especially since the fund is seeing relief from previous mass inflows.
A spokesperson for Aberdeen said there have been no discussions about re-opening the outperforming portfolio as yet, though if outflows persist, FE Trustnet thinks this is unlikely to be the case for much longer.
Should the fund re-open to investors, McDermott thinks the window of opportunity is likely to be very short given how popular it is.
Even if Aberdeen decides to retain the high initial charge to deter investors, McDermott thinks many investors on the Cofunds platform will be willing to wear the extra cost, such is the demand for Kaloo’s vehicle.
"The platform closed it for operational reasons, which I think it regrets because there were plenty of clients willing to buy it even with the prohibitive charge," he added.
Anyone who wants exposure to Aberdeen Emerging Markets at the moment will need to cough up an initial charge of 4.25 per cent. On top of that, it has ongoing charges of 1.94 per cent.
Aberdeen Emerging Markets is not the only high-profile fund that has seen big outflows recently.
The £7.2bn First State Asia Pacific Leaders fund, sitting in the battered Asia Pacific sphere, has also seen more than £170m come off its books in the last three months, and nearly £85m in the last four weeks.
First State announced its plans to soft-close its £4bn First State Global Emerging Markets Leaders fund and previously sent a letter to investors warning it would need to soft-close the £7.2bn Asia Pacific Leaders fund if massive inflows continued.
However, these significant redemptions could see them question this move to slow inflows.
Other funds that have seen big outflows according to our data include Threadneedle Asia, Allianz BRIC Stars and Henderson China Opportunities.
McDermott says the big outflows are a result of emerging markets’ tough times in recent weeks, and worries over their outlook in the future – particularly with regard to China’s credit crisis.
The MSCI Emerging Markets index has dropped more than 13 per cent since the start of last month alone, and is down 10.15 per cent since the beginning of the year.
Performance of indices in 2013
Source: FE Analytics
"Emerging markets are generally underperforming, so you’re likely to be seeing outflows from the asset class generally," McDermott said. "When you’re the biggest fund in the sector, you’re likely to see outflows too."
"There will be plenty of people willing to pay the charge [if the fund is back on Cofunds]," he said.
The fund’s record speaks for itself, having outperformed both the IMA Global Emerging Markets sector and the MSCI Emerging Markets index over one, three, five and 10 years.
Over the last decade, the fund has made 446.52 per cent, nearly 200 percentage points more than the sector and index, which have made 258.14 per cent and 267.63 per cent, respectively.
Performance of fund vs sector and index over 10yrs
Source: FE Analytics
However, the fund has been harder hit than its peers since the start of the year, underperforming the sector over one, three and six months. It has also lagged the index during the recent sell-off, shedding 16.06 per cent in the last month while the sector and index both lost roughly 15 per cent.
Due to the massive size of the fund, Aberdeen Emerging Markets is invested in some of the largest companies in the developing world, such as South Korean electronics behemoth Samsung Electronics, Brazilian banking and financial services giant Banco Bradesco and the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturing firm Taiwan Semiconductor.
Financials are the largest sector weighting in the fund, at 34.4 per cent while the largest regional allocation is to the Pacific Basin.