- The strategy
- Explore the funds
- Focusing on intrinsic value and often taking a contrarian view
- Using our experience and research to exploit volatility
- Investing for the long term
The Asian region rewards research, patience, discipline and experience. We have been investing in the region for 20 years, following companies and countries through different cycles to gain a deeper understanding of the risks and rewards.
Our investment philosophy
We believe Asian markets are inefficient, with prices of individual companies often extrapolating near-term trends that are unlikely to persist in the long term. This is an enduring feature of equity markets in the region. We seek to identify opportunities using our long-term and often contrarian approach combined with a valuation discipline, while actively managing our clients’ assets.
Focusing on intrinsic value rather than pure statistical value, we recognise that businesses with different return characteristics will attract different valuations. While this may seem self-evident, we are acutely aware that the price paid will be the most significant determinant of an investment’s success. Pay too much for an investment and it can generate a poor return, no matter how good its subsequent operational performance is. Ultimately, we seek to own the highest quality businesses at a valuation that adequately compensates our clients for a range of uncertain outcomes. Having conviction in our beliefs and commitment to our process allows us to be contrarian in our approach.
We believe that understanding governance and the management of risks to multiple stakeholders is also a key factor in successful investing in Asia. By understanding the relevant risks and incentives of various parties we can enhance returns for our clients. This also includes a focus on sustainable business models as they relate to practices involving their employees and local communities as well as their environmental impact.
Having invested in the Asian region for 20 years, we have observed numerous market cycles, where companies, countries and sectors have fallen in and out of favour with the changing economic circumstances and prevailing sentiment. Foreign capital flowing in and out of the region can often exacerbate these swings. We have found the region rewards research, patience, discipline and experience. By combining these with our long-term focus, we believe we can manage risks and identify successful investment opportunities for our clients’ benefit.
Our investment approach
We actively manage portfolios, investing in listed equities across Asia (ex-Japan) or Asia Pacific (ex-Japan). Our approach is high conviction stock picking, with ideas generated through our research and experience.
We initially seek to identify companies trading at an attractive discount to their intrinsic value using several quantitative screens designed to rank the investment universe and highlight prospective investments. Our experienced team then undertakes detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis (bottom-up research) on those stock ideas, identifying why the company is mispriced and whether those reasons are likely to persist. This includes examining key issues and risks, the industry structure it operates in as well as its management and capital allocation track record.
Responsible investing is important to us. We believe companies that best manage their environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities will also benefit multiple stakeholders while generating sustainable, long-term returns to shareholders. We examine companies on their approach to ESG risks as well as opportunities.
The result is a diversified portfolio from the highest conviction opportunities which we expect to deliver strong risk-adjusted returns over the long-term and typically holds 40–60 stocks.
Our experienced, aligned team
Our investment team has deep experience across emerging markets in the Asian region. Our portfolio managers are also investment analysts, emphasising the importance of our fundamental company research. Similarly, there is a strong alignment of interest with our clients through our remuneration structure including key investment professionals investing in underlying vehicles alongside clients.
Portfolio Manager
A team of experienced and dedicated investment professionals.
