Asian Companies See Significant Growth Opportunities as Their Home Markets Grow: Two Expert Portfolio Managers Share Some of Their Top Stock Picks with The Wall Street Transcript
67 WALL STREET, New York - June 28, 2013 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its Investing in Asia Report offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs and Equity Analysts. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
Topics covered: Investing in Asia - Longer-Term Investing - Asia Pacific Investment Theses - Investing in China - Equity Investing Strategies - China's Domestic Markets - Undervalued Asian Companies
Companies include: Hershey Co. (HSY), Samsung (005930.KS) and many more.
In the following excerpt from the Investing in Asia Report, an expert portfolio manager discusses his portfolio-construction methodology and his investment philosphy:
TWST: Would you each share one or two examples of stocks that you like and tell us what you like about them?
Ms. Sunderland: Sure, one company is Petra Foods (P34.SI). It's a Singapore-listed company that you could think of as the Hershey's (HSY) of Indonesia, where they have about 50% market share in chocolates. They have been there for over 60 years. The Indonesia market is very interesting because the consumption of chocolate is very low, but beginning to grow. Petra has the distribution to many of the independent shops and markets, and as incomes rise, chocolate consumption increases.
This is a company that Spencer and I visited together. They came off one of our screens. We got to know them, and we built our position over time. It has been a nice investment, but we're more excited about the long-run opportunity, as only 10% of the local population can afford branded chocolates today. These guys are well-positioned to compete against Nestle and the other multinational chocolate companies, because they know the local market, the distribution network and the local consumers' tastes better. The consumers know and trust the brand, much like we do with Hershey, Snickers or M&M. This is one that we could own for a long time.
Mr. Stewart: Petra's a great company. I'll jump to another one Amy and I meet with together. It's MyEG (MYEG:MK), a Malaysian company. Basically, it's addressing automation of government services, like vehicle registration, inspection payments, anything. This is a large market in Malaysia and has historically been very manual. These guys have implemented automation, and they get a piece of every transaction. It's an astounding business model, with incredibly high margins and tremendous headroom to penetrate basically any government-related payment program. It's a noncyclical business with recurring revenue that is growing quickly, and it's trading at a much better valuation than U.S. comparisons.
TWST: What do you see as the most significant risks on the horizon for investors this year and into 2014? How does your investment strategy seek to minimize exposure to those risks?
Mr. Stewart: That, of course, is a very tough question to answer. Many markets have had a nice run relative to the strength of the global economy, and prices are feeling a little expensive. This is not true across the globe, but we certainly wouldn't be surprised to see a pullback in some markets. The global economic picture is...
For more of this interview and many others visit the Wall Street Transcript - a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs, portfolio managers and research analysts. This special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
