Megatrends to drive change in investments
Investable opportunities are emerging in five key areas across the Australian and international share markets driven by long term non-cyclical changes, according to Zurich Investments.
Investments strategist with Zurich, Charles Stoddart, said these megatrends would take place in the areas of demographic change and the ageing population, connected consumers, new power technologies, the growth of consumerism in Asia, and the ‘internet of things'.
Stoddart said each of these represents a megatrend because they will create sustained change with significant implications for wide parts of society and are unlikely to be subject to market cycles.
In the area of changing demographics and an ageing population Stoddart said the increased longevity of retirees would have far reaching impact on investment markets.
He said there were questions around the sustainability of retirement models but this also raised investment opportunities in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, aged care, and preventative medicine.
"Issues around the quality of life and lifestyle will drive investments as will how these things will be costed efficiently," Stoddart said.
"As more people age more services will be required with 1.6 million people needing aged care and health services by 2020."
Stoddart said consumer growth in China had created a new middle class looking for quality consumer brands while technology had moved from the desktop, to the internet to mobile devices.
He said these trends were plausible and investable with Zurich having selected a range of managers across its portfolio to access these trends.
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