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March 2016
Important Information:
This webinar contains information specifically intended for institutional clients, asset consultants, advisers, platforms and researchers, who are professional investors and wholesale clients (as defined in the Corporations Act 2001).
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Bell Asset Management's investment approach demands companies with an optimal combination of; excellent management, franchise strength, superior and consistent profitability, financial strength and favourable business drivers.
Speaking with Financial Standard, Ned Bell, chief investment officer, Bell Asset Management said that for Bell Asset Management companies based in emerging markets simply aren't passing their quality threshold and so can't promise absolute returns.
"In terms of how we see the world, we get asked a lot about how we see emerging markets, so far we've avoided emerging markets. It's not from a case of not wanting to be there, we simply cannot find companies which pass our quality test," said Bell.
"More recently we've seen countries such as Brazil and Russia ... we've seen how the impact of lower oil prices has decimated the Russian economy ... how corruption in Brazil is rampant.
"All the old ghosts of emerging markets that were there 10 years ago have resurfaced," said Bell. Instead Bell Asset Management is focusing its efforts on North America, where 72.8% of their absolute asset allocation sits.
"North America is where we're finding the best opportunities at the moment ... most of the companies we invest in are multinationals, so it's not so much a play on the North American economy, it's more of a case that MasterCard is a fantastic global organisation which happens to be based in the US," said Bell.
Europe is also catching Bell Asset Management's eye, who view the economy to be in a period of slow growth recovery, with pockets of opportunity continuing to emerge.
"We are very benchmark agnostic. We completely ignore the benchmark. We're not selling or hugging on the index, we're really only investing in the companies that we really believe in.
"Our attitude towards our client's money is that it's absolute risk, our client's money is the most important risk to focus on. If we lost money ... you know there's an old saying "You can't eat relative performance," said Bell.
Bell Asset Management's investment approach demands companies with an optimal combination of; excellent management, franchise strength, superior and consistent profitability, financial strength and favourable business drivers.
Speaking with Financial Standard, Ned Bell, chief investment officer, Bell Asset Management said that for Bell Asset Management companies based in emerging markets simply aren't passing their quality threshold and so can't promise absolute returns.
"In terms of how we see the world, we get asked a lot about how we see emerging markets, so far we've avoided emerging markets. It's not from a case of not wanting to be there, we simply cannot find companies which pass our quality test," said Bell.
"More recently we've seen countries such as Brazil and Russia ... we've seen how the impact of lower oil prices has decimated the Russian economy ... how corruption in Brazil is rampant.
"All the old ghosts of emerging markets that were there 10 years ago have resurfaced," said Bell. Instead Bell Asset Management is focusing its efforts on North America, where 72.8% of their absolute asset allocation sits.
"North America is where we're finding the best opportunities at the moment ... most of the companies we invest in are multinationals, so it's not so much a play on the North American economy, it's more of a case that MasterCard is a fantastic global organisation which happens to be based in the US," said Bell.
Europe is also catching Bell Asset Management's eye, who view the economy to be in a period of slow growth recovery, with pockets of opportunity continuing to emerge.
"We are very benchmark agnostic. We completely ignore the benchmark. We're not selling or hugging on the index, we're really only investing in the companies that we really believe in.
"Our attitude towards our client's money is that it's absolute risk, our client's money is the most important risk to focus on. If we lost money ... you know there's an old saying "You can't eat relative performance," said Bell.
