The main success factor for a relative value strategy is the absolute level of spreads, and as discussed extensively in recent newsletters, the narrowing of value spreads which started in November 2020 is still intact and contributing positively to performance.

A secondary success factor is a high level of dispersion, or the degree to which individual names within the spread universe are moving independently. This is because dispersion helps to mitigate the impact of the inevitable periods of overall spread widening which occur from time to time. It allows rotation out of names which are narrowing against the trend, and into other names which are widening. (more…)

We have been writing for some time about the bottoming-out of the value factor which started in November 2020.

This trend has been observed globally and among the various markets of the Asia-Pacific region.

However, one market had been notably absent from the trend: (more…)

This month we check on the progress of our turning-point thesis.

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M&A activity in Asia-Pacific is trending at a post-GFC record:

Several drivers exist in our view: (more…)

Interest rates are in focus, with long-term Treasury yields rising steadily, the curve steepening and implied volatility moving higher.

We have previously considered the effect of these trends on equity relative value performance. How about the impact on corporate merger activity? (more…)

We have recently written about the potential turning point for Value versus Growth which occurred in mid-November.

To recap, we identified a sharp spike in the volatility of the Value / Growth ratio as resembling a similar event in the year 2000, which at that time marked the start of a long period of Value out-performance.

What do we need for the turning point thesis to hold? (more…)

In our last post we highlighted a volatility spike in the Value / Growth ratio as a potential sign that the multi-year under-performance of Value might be coming to an end.

More specifically, we looked at the 10-day volatility of the MSCI Asia-Pacific ex-Japan Value index divided by MSCI Asia-Pacific ex-Japan Growth index, which in November spiked to 30 for the first time in twenty years.

The last time this happened marked the start of a long period of Value outperformance.

Volatility spikes are often associated with market turning points. Why? (more…)

We may finally have seen a turning point in the under-performance of Value.

The volatility of the Value / Growth ratio in Asia-Pacific surged to 30% on 6 November. The last time we saw a similar level was just over twenty years ago, on 10 April 2000:

This is significant because (more…)

We continue to have a strong conviction in a strategy of buying companies at 80-90% discount to NAV, with an expectation of a catalyst for value realisation.

While over the long-term this has proven to be a very effective strategy, it has performed poorly over the past year.

What could be the cause? We believe the global underperformance of the value factor is the main culprit.

We have previously illustrated this using benchmarks from MSCI and Russell Investments. However, to show just how extreme the current moves are, (more…)

We have two situations which are public. The first is NBI Industrial Finance in India, a company which owns shares of a major listed cement company worth almost five times its market cap and which carries on almost no other business.

This month, we sent an open letter to the board which we also released to the press and uploaded to a dedicated website (link).

The letter was structured as a list of questions, in line with our policy of first seeking explanations for corporate behaviour before making our own suggestions.

In the first instance, we are asking: (more…)