Emerging From Emerging Markets

Two of the most popular phrases in the investment world are "going global" and "emerging markets," but John Chisholm of Acadian Asset Management thinks it may be time for investors to emerge from some of the more popular emerging markets.

"We've become a lot more cautious on emerging markets in the last year," Chisholm told CNBC.  "We still think there are good investments in the emerging markets, but we don't expect nearly to see the same kind of return for the next five years that we've seen for the past five years."

Chisholm's five-star Acadian Emerging Markets Fund is up an average of 41.59 percent per year over those last five years.

"We're staying away from some of the formerly best-performing markets," he said.  "We're underweight now in markets like China ... and India."

He has some guidelines for the best emerging markets to invest in.

"What we found works best in making sure you're invested in the right countries is to avoid countries with very high degrees of corruption, because we find corruption acts as a tax on economic growth," he said.

So what about Russia, where Chisholm's fund has a big stake in Lukoil?

Chisholm admits corruption is a big negative about investing in Russia, but there are some strong compensating factors.

"It's a very cheap market, in terms of valuation," he said.  "The second thing is, Russia's driven by oil, and with oil prices being where they are right now, Russia's a great investment opportunity."

His firm also has a big stake in Thailand's PTT.

"Thailand's one of those markets in Asia that's not as heavily exposed to the global economy and to the U.S. as some of the other markets in Asia are," he said.

Another big holding is Brazil's Banco Itau

ITU loading...

Quote  |  Chart  |  News  |  Profile

[ITU  Loading...      ()   ].

"Some of the banks in Brazil have very little exposure to U.S. mortgages," he explained  "This bank is drawing very well through wealth management activities and through more fee-based revenue."