Global Investing

By Dasha Afanasieva

Markets got a fright today when luxury goods maker Richemont reported stagnant Asian sales in the last three months of 2012.  Richemont shares as well as those in its rivals such as LVMH (maker of Louis Vuitton handbags and Hennessy cognac) tanked after the news.

Like many of its peers in the west, Richemont the maker of Cartier watches, looks to China to drive its growth as the United States and Europe face the stark prospect of stagnation.

But the fastest growing class of the world’s fastest growing economy will probably not be Cartier-clad.

By 2030, emerging and developing economies will account for more than four fifths of the world’s middle class, as defined by consumers who spend between $10 and $100 a day, according to consultancy Roland Berger. Fashion, leisure and communication are likely to see growth rates of 30 percent in the next seven years, the report said. According to Bernd Brunke,  a partner at Roland Berger:

 In the next few years, we will see rapid population growth and a major improvement in the standard of living in emerging regions of the world …Accordingly, the consumers in these countries will buy more and demand high-quality products.

After a ghastly 2011, Indian stock markets have’t done too badly this year despite the almost constant stream of bad news from India. They are up 12 percent, slightly outperforming other emerging markets, thanks to  fairly cheap valuations (by India’s normally expensive standards)  and hopes the central bank might cut rates. But foreign  inflows, running at $3 billion a month in the first quarter, have tapered off and the underlying mood is pessimistic. Above all, the worry is how much will India’s once turbo-charged economy slow? With the government seemingly in policy stupor, growth is likely to fall under 7 percent this year. News today added to the gloom — exports fell in March for the first time since the 2009 global crisis.

So how are fund managers to play India now? According to David Cornell, who runs an India portfolio at specialist investor Ocean Dial, they must simply get used to the “new normal” — subpar growth and high cost of capital. In this shift, Cornell points out, return on assets in India has fallen from a peak of almost 14 percent in 2007 to less than 10 percent now. While that is still higher than the broader emerging asset class, the advantage has dwindled to less than 1 percent as companies suffer from margin compression and falling turnover. Check out these two graphs from Ocean Dial:

Cornell is playing the new normal by focusing on three sectors — consumer goods, banks and pharmaceuticals. These companies, he says, have pricing power and structural barriers to entry (banks); provide access to still-buoyant demand for services such as mobile phones (consumer goods) and are well-run and profitable (pharmaceuticals). And the export-oriented pharma sector is also an effective hedge against the weakening rupee.