Aubrey Capital Management Pivots Strategy: Profit-Taking in AI Sparks Shift Toward India

Edinburgh-based investment firm Aubrey Capital Management has announced a strategic reallocation of its portfolio, trimming significant gains from the global artificial intelligence (AI) boom to reinvest in the Indian market.

The move follows a period of exceptional performance for the firm, with its Global Emerging Market Fund recording a 24.47% increase over the past 12 months. Rob Brewis, director and investment manager at Aubrey, revealed that the firm has significantly reduced its exposure to the information technology sector, pivoting instead toward established opportunities in India.

Capitalizing on the AI ‘Windfall’

According to Mr. Brewis, the firm experienced a major “windfall” throughout 2024 and 2025 as AI-related technology stocks in South Korea and Taiwan dominated global markets. A standout performer for the portfolio was the South Korean semiconductor giant SK Hynix.

“Bought first in June 2024, it had a shaky start… before taking off in mid-2025 as demand for its products exploded,” said Mr. Brewis. He noted that while the firm began trimming its position early, it successfully offloaded significant portions of the stock near its peak of W3,000,000.

This strategy of active profit-taking, combined with the weeding out of underperforming IT assets, has resulted in a material reduction in the portfolio’s IT weighting, which has dropped from approximately 50% to 35%.

A Strategic Pivot to India

The liquidity generated from these exits has been strategically directed back into India. Aubrey Capital Management has bolstered its existing Indian positions and re-entered several “old names,” including ICICI Bank.

Mr. Brewis highlighted the resilience of the firm’s Indian holdings, noting that they have remained “negatively correlated to the AI trade in recent months.” He pointed to an encouraging trend in foreign investment, with July marking the first month of net buying by foreign investors in the Indian market since February.

“We continue to find more potential additions to the portfolio in our Indian watchlist than anywhere else, and most of these are in our more traditional consumer and financial sectors,” Mr. Brewis added.

A Data-Driven Approach

The agility of the fund is supported by a proprietary “Focus List” of approximately 150 to 200 companies. This watchlist allows the investment team to act with high conviction, enabling them to rotate capital swiftly as market conditions fluctuate.

As the firm navigates the evolving economic landscape, this recent Aubrey Capital Management maneuver underscores a broader trend among emerging market investors: balancing the high-growth potential of semiconductor and AI infrastructure with the steady, reliable returns found in established consumer and financial markets.

At the time of writing, shares in the Aubrey Global Emerging Market Fund were trading up 0.74%.