Henderson: Asia an income opportunity

However, despite the economic slowdown, over last 12 months Asia has become one of the places we turn to find a yield. Companies and markets there are maturing, meaning cash flow can be returned to shareholders.

Western economies are mired in debt and crisis, but doom and gloom surrounding Asia, and China especially, is largely the result of sentiment rather than fact. Indeed, the hysteria has been dramatic enough to send markets plummeting.

Opinion is highly polarized.  Many have professed that, for example, China is the archetypal growth story, while others have sworn that it will soon disappear down a black hole, dragging along those in its path.

The trouble is that, as interesting as the headlines are, nobody is representing the middle ground. And Asia, including China in particular, for quite some time now, has been somewhere in the middle.