What Is the Investment Case for Emerging Markets?

 

Recorded at the Envestnet Advisors Summit 2022.  Presented by:

Advisorpedia Interviewed Daniel Grana, the Portfolio Manager at Janus Henderson Investors, at the Envestnet Advisor Summit in May, 2022.

Resources: Janus Henderson Investors

Related: Personal Outcomes Through Asset/Liability Wealth Management

Transcript:

After the sort of complicated COVID experience, the Chinese regulatory thunderbolts and now the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many investors have asked what is the investment case for emerging markets. And what I would say is that emerging markets is evolving from a story that is purely about outsourcing and convergence.

So outsourcing is we build things cheaper, better, faster. And convergences. As income levels rise, people are gonna want a car and a home and so forth. . .

And we're adding a third leg, which is innovation. A lot of emerging market companies are taking the lead in innovation. A lot of the emerging market companies are solving domestic frictions, using innovation. So think two thirds of Mexican population don't have access to a bank. What solves that problem, fintech?

There's unequal access to healthcare in India, clinics and hospitals now where they need to be what solves telemedicine. And so the exciting thing about emerging markets is that it's more than just what it was in the past, it's now also been driven by innovation, when in waiting in emerging markets, you have to consider that this is the past is not necessarily gonna reflect the future. feeding the hungry Chinese dragon, with commodities with CAP goods, is not the way that is going to succeed in the future. The countries that have succeeded in the future are the ones that have large domestic markets, because we've probably seen peak globalization, companies and countries that are innovating.

And thirdly, who has a reformist government pulls it all together. And so what this argues is that we're not going to see a rising tide lifting all boats like we did in the sort of decades before the global financial crisis. Some countries are going to succeed, some countries are going to fail to converge. So you need to have an active manager in this asset class that's going to be able to sort of choose and pick which are the right places to invest.