The tech opportunity in Asia
Platinum’s Cameron Robertson, who has taken over co-management of the firm’s Asia strategy, has used his technology background to highlight opportunities in Asia.
Robertson ran the International Technology fund but was appointed to co-manage the Asia strategy with chief investment officer Andrew Clifford from 1 April.
In a video, the manager said he would be bringing his technology experience to the Asia ex Japan fund in areas such as digital advertising, tele-health and co-working between humans and robots.
“Asia has changed enormously in the last two decades when people associated it with labour operations whereas today there is cutting edge technology in Asia such as TSMC, Samsung, companies making fuel cells and mobile payment firms. There is lot of opportunity.”
He said foreign investors tended to focus on mega-caps like Tencent and Alibaba and were ignoring other players which offered opportunities for growth. Instead, Platinum looked for those mispriced opportunities.
“Tencent and Alibaba are great businesses and I am sure they will continue to do well but there are other companies which we are excited about. There are two broad categories; companies which are out of favour or temporarily neglected and there are others which are experiencing a rapid change that is not being fully appreciated by investors for how the environment will look in three to five years,” he said.
“We look to take advantage of opportunities that are mispriced over the next three to five years.”
The Platinum Asia fund returned 34.5% over one year to 31 March, 2021, according to FE Analytics, versus returns of 43.1% by the Asia ex Japan sector within the Australian Core Strategies universe.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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