Five stock tips from the world’s best fund managers
Merryn Somerset Webb reveals five stock tips from top-performing fund managers at the Sohn Conference in London.
More Sohn tips (see the original article here). Eashwar Krishnan of Tybourne Capital looked at the Asian media industry. He talked about the low levels of ad spend in Asia relative to GDP (around 1%) and the very low ad rates (about 20 times less in India than in the US for example). That's despite the fact that consumer spending is rising much faster in Asia than elsewhere.
He expects ad rates to rise at double digit rates "for years"; he is convinced that there is scope for fast rising profits across the sector; and notes too that changes in the pay-TV industry will allow content providers to take more of the total revenues than they currently do.
And the "macro headwinds" in emerging markets just provide a "good entry level". The actual tips included Surya Citra Media, PT Media, and Zee Entertainment Entreprises.
Later, Mala Gaonkar of Lone Pine Capital suggested Qualcomm for its "steady, thoughtful innovation", strong patent portfolio, exposure to the fast growing smartphone market and high royalty income.
Then Dynamo Capital founder Bruno Rocha gave a great talk about the lack of correlation between economic growth and stock-market returns before tipping AB Inbev, thanks to the fact that its scale makes it very hard to compete with.
This, by the way, is something that a large percentage of the tips focused on companies in duopolies and oligopolies and with infrastructures no one else can build from scratch. Get that combination at the right price, and it is hard to go wrong.