Speaking at PA‘s Global event, Joshua Jones, portfolio manager at Boston Partners, said both cyclically and non-cyclically orientated businesses in Japan will yield good opportunities on the back of improving economic growth in the region.
Tomas Johansson, portfolio manager, Skagen Insight, also highlighted Japan as the land of opportunity, particularly because of the resurgence of shareholder activism in the region.
“I would single out Japan where the development of the corporate governance framework is moving companies to become more shareholder-friendly,” he said.
For Christian Goldsmith, a portfolio specialist in the global multi-asset team at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, the start of the year will be geopolitically volatile, leading to an underweight in equities.
However, beyond that he said global growth appears healthy for 2018 and companies leveraged to emerging market growth stand to benefit the most.
Elsewhere, Invesco Perpetual global equities fund manager Andrew Hall targeted Mexico, South Korea and the UK as the most discounted regions on 10-year average price-to-book and price-to-earnings ratios.
In terms of sectors, Hall views automotive, energy and retail as the stand-out opportunities.
