Baillie Gifford

It’s time to stop looking in the rear-view mirror when it comes to emerging markets. Conventional wisdom always extrapolates recent experience, but after a decade in which both economic growth and equity returns have been lacklustre relative to the rest of the world – and with relative valuations now back at multi-decade lows – we worry that investors have badly misunderstood the depth of the transformation that has been taking place in our asset class.

Few things matter more to an investor than understanding and anticipating change. As we celebrate 15 years of Global Alpha, we share some thoughts on how the portfolio, our process and the team have developed over time.

We have been investing in the world’s great growth opportunities since 1908.

We have been investing in the world’s great growth opportunities since 1908.

One ought to be an optimist to invest in Emerging Markets, but so very few analysts are. Baillie Gifford’s Emerging Markets team explain how they fly in the face of market inefficiencies in their search for excess returns.

For Full Year 2019, updating on contributions towards a more sustainable and inclusive world.

Technological developments over recent decades mean reality has outpaced the science fiction of his youth since Mark Urquhart joined Baillie Gifford almost 25 years ago. Now, scanning the Covid-19 driven global economy, he sets out his enthusiasm and expectations for the next decade and beyond.

First to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, the Asia ex Japan region is in robust health and its innovative companies are thriving. Roderick Snell surveys the Asian landscape and argues that Asia is where to look for superior long-term growth.

The Global Alpha strategy will turn 15 years old this year. The product was launched in 2005 in response to a client need for an unconstrained and diversified global stock-picking portfolio, with a focus on superior long-term growth. Much has changed in the intervening decade and a half, but amid relentless change in the world and an evolution of our process, we have always been guided by our fiduciary duty to clients.

Twice a year we produce a Long Term Global Growth magazine called Looking Back Going Forward, which contains investment articles which we trust will be of interest. We are pleased to bring you the April 2020 issue.

Will Sutcliffe, Sophie Earnshaw and Mike Gush, investment managers in the Emerging Markets team with a combined total of 45 years’ experience, give an introduction to the team’s approach.

It’s essential to be realistic and keep the risk of over-optimism in check. But there’s plenty to feel positive about in emerging markets, says Tim Erskine-Murray, who offers an insight into the reasons for his unwavering enthusiasm.

In the dystopian 2013 novel The Circle college graduate Mae Holland joins a fictional Silicon Valley tech giant that has emerged as ‘the winner’ of the battle for online supremacy, dominating messaging, payments, social media and ecommerce.

In 2017, the Emerging Markets team wrote a paper called ‘Morbid Symptoms’, explaining why they were optimistic despite the confusion of political events in the West. A year on, Will Sutcliffe provides five more reasons to be cheerful about emerging market equities.