Diversification Play: Why It's Not Too Late to Buy Asia

Summary

Merryn Talks Money – "Diversification Play: Why It's Not Too Late to Buy Asia"

Host: Merryn Somerset Webb (Bloomberg)
Guest: Fiona Yang, Portfolio Manager, Invesco Asia Dragon
Release Date: February 23, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the evolving role of Asia in global investment portfolios. Merryn Somerset Webb interviews Fiona Yang, who manages an Asia equity fund (excluding Japan), to explore how and why international money is increasingly rotating from the US and other developed markets into Asian equities. The conversation covers the diversity within Asian markets, challenges such as demographics and geopolitics, sector opportunities, Fiona's contrarian, valuation-driven investment approach, and the case for continued Asian diversification—despite higher valuations and macro uncertainties.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The "Rotation" to Asia: What’s Behind the Trend?

• 2025 as a Year of Rebalancing ([03:30])
  • Fiona attributes recent Asian outperformance to a weak US dollar, Asian central bank rate cuts, and Asia’s leadership in the global AI revolution.
  • Quote: "2025 was a year of rebalancing... the central bank in Asia basically cutting interest rate to try to stimulate economic growth. That just attracted a lot of immensely attention. Combined with Asia such as Taiwan and Korea being the engine behind the global AI revolution..." — Fiona Yang ([03:30])
• Investors increasingly want to diversify away from US assets and into Asia for earnings growth and valuation upside.

Asia: Not One Market, But Many

• Merryn and Fiona debunk the "Asia = China and the rest" misconception ([04:48]).
• Key regions:
  • India: Strong GDP growth, unique investment opportunities
  • Southeast Asia: Benefits from manufacturing shifting out of China (“China Plus One”)
  • Tech leadership: Asia is the “uncontested leader” in memory/foundry chips

Japan’s Regional Role and Spillovers

• Mild impact from Japan’s changing political priorities—Fiona focuses more on currency/tech competition between Korea and Japan ([06:31]).
• Chinese tourism to Japan has slowed, affecting the service sector but with manageable impact.

Demographics: From Growth Engine to Headwind

• Aging and falling birthrates are shaping new macro trends ([07:46]).
  • Quote: "The incentives the government has introduced for them to have two babies or even three kids is just not enough... So this structural trend is undeniable." — Fiona Yang ([08:49])
• Policymakers are pushing for higher-value-added industries, automation, robotics, and targeting retiree spending.
• “Silver economy” investments (retiree services, education, hospitality) are rising.

Investment Philosophy: Contrarian, Valuation-Driven, Long-Term

• Three pillars ([11:02]):
  1. Valuation discipline: Buying undervalued, mispriced stocks, especially when market fear is high.
  2. Long-term holding: 3–5 year horizons, patience through volatility.
  3. Contrarian/capital cycle approach: Seeking sectors/countries out of favor for higher future returns.
  • Quote: “The power of staying in the seat, understanding the stock level drivers behind a single company.” — Fiona Yang ([12:35])
• Example: Holding Chinese gaming company NetEase for a decade through volatility, benefiting from multi-bagger gains.

Stock Selection: Narrowing the Massive Asian Universe

• Focus on places other investors avoid (e.g., China during periods of negative sentiment; [13:40]).
• Looks for global leaders undervalued vs. peers (example: H World Hotels in China, a "leaner, higher-margin" company post-COVID).

Income & Dividends in Asia

• Asia traditionally seen as “growthy” with low dividends, but there’s a shift ([15:20]):
  • Policy changes (e.g., Korea’s "Value Up" campaign) are incentivizing greater shareholder returns.
  • Trust pays a 4% yield (mix of dividends + capital), attractive especially for investors requiring regular income.

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Market-Specific Deep Dives

China

• Remains a key but nuanced opportunity; no longer as deeply undervalued but plenty for "bottom-up" pickers ([20:13]).
  • Growth in robotics, electric vehicles, AI, consumer experience sectors.
  • Real estate crisis is positive in the sense that it's being managed early versus allowing a full bubble to form ([21:29]).
  • Shift in consumer savings from property to experiences and products.
  • Quote: "It's just amazing to see some of the robotics company...look at the EV company...in terms of products, in terms of their costs." — Fiona Yang ([20:13])
  • Cautiously watching for signs that the consumer boom is materializing ([24:53]).

Korea

• Corporate governance reform and memory chip cycle led to a dramatic 2025 rally ([27:53]).
  • The “Korean discount” is shrinking due to better shareholder returns and government action ([28:30]).
  • Memory chip sector is now an oligopoly; tight supply and AI demand means profits but valuations are no longer as cheap ([27:53]).
  • “We just take some profit off the table.”

Taiwan

• AI boom centered in Taiwan, led by TSMC ([30:59]).
  • Heightened expectations and pricing make the team cautious; overweight select companies, but valuations less attractive across the board.
  • Geopolitical uncertainty (China–Taiwan tensions) is a “constant risk” but diversification (TSMC building capacity overseas) helps mitigate ([32:07]).
  • Quote: “If anything happened to Taiwan...Chinese market could effectively go to zero in our index. So that's a risk we constantly discuss.” — Fiona Yang ([32:13])

India

• Market is generally expensive, so they remain underweight ([33:55]).
  • Still, selective financial stocks—like non-bank lender focused on rural SMEs and “gold loans”—offer value ([37:25]).

Southeast Asia & Vietnam

• Southeast Asia benefits from supply chain diversification ([40:38]).
  • Countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam are attractively valued and well-positioned for sustained growth.
• In Vietnam: Opportunities in IT services and consumer staples, but constrained by foreign ownership limits ([39:08]).

Currency & Macro Risks

• Asia currencies relatively stable versus each other—key risk is US dollar strength ([35:26]).
• Portfolio companies’ revenue/costs are often matched domestically or in US dollars, mitigating some of the impact.

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Key Portfolio Risks & Worries

• Valuations getting ahead of fundamentals, especially in sectors with AI-fueled hype ([33:38]).
• Balance sheet strength: Preference for low-debt, resilient companies ([34:37]).
  • Quote: “I do see debt as a heavy backpack. When the road is flat, anyone can carry it. When you hit a hill, really the one with the heavy debt can be dragged down.” — Fiona Yang ([34:37])
• Diversification: Ensuring the portfolio isn’t overly driven by a single theme (e.g., AI cycle).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Asian diversity:
  "One of the biggest misconception about Asia is this is China and the rest. But reality...there are so many different countries, therefore different sectors within Asia." — Fiona Yang ([04:48])

• On demographic change:
  "Instead of trying to cater to the kids, now everyone is trying to sell say the hospitality industry as well as even retiree education, re education industry. All of this are gaining more traction in Asia." — Fiona Yang ([09:44])

• On staying patient:
  "If you hold onto the stock over the past 10 years it's pretty much has gone through a lot of volatility...But market cap has grown over six times. That just shows the power of staying in the seat." — Fiona Yang ([12:35])

• On valuation risk:
  "You don't want to be the last one to buy the hype." — Fiona Yang ([33:55])

• On real diversification:
  "Asia do offer a cheaper alternative. Getting you access to a vast region of different countries and different sector exposure is real diversification. Not just another picker." — Fiona Yang ([42:17])

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Segment Timestamps

• [02:41] — Fiona’s macro view: Why capital is rotating into Asia now
• [04:48] — Misconceptions: China isn’t “all of Asia”
• [07:46] — The demographic headwind and how Asia is adapting
• [11:02] — Fiona’s 3-pillar investment approach
• [13:40] — Finding value in “unloved” markets and companies
• [15:20] — The rise of dividends and shareholder returns in Asia
• [20:13] — Specifics: China – opportunities, challenges, and changing consumer habits
• [27:53] — Korea: End of the “Korean discount” and the memory chip story
• [30:59] — Taiwan, AI, and geopolitical concerns
• [33:38] — Key risks: valuation, debt, staying diversified
• [35:26] — Managing currency risk
• [37:25] — Opportunities in India’s financial sector
• [39:08] — Vietnam, Southeast Asia, and the supply chain shift
• [41:44] — Big picture: Rotation toward Asia, risk of US concentration
• [42:17] — Real diversification for investors

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Takeaways

• Asia remains an essential diversification play, but investors must be selective—valuations are higher than 1–2 years ago, but are still compelling versus the US and Europe.
• The region is extremely diverse—country, sector, and company selection is key.
• New macro challenges (demographics, geopolitics) are spurring innovation and shifting opportunity sets.
• A disciplined, patient, and contrarian approach is vital; overpaying for hype is a key risk.
• Real diversification means looking beyond China, recognizing where true value and long-term growth exist.

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Final Thought:
Fiona’s message is clear: “Check your home bias”—Asia offers opportunities you can no longer afford to ignore, and despite the region’s higher profile, it’s not too late for discerning, long-term investors to benefit.

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Transcript

[Fiona Yang]

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[Fiona Yang]

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[Fiona Yang]

You're playing the loot.

[Marin Somerset]

Yeah, and it sounds pretty good, right?

[Matt Rogers]

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[Marin Somerset]

that take credit cards nationwide, based on

[Matt Rogers]

the February 2025 Nielsen report. This is Matt Rogers from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

[Bowen Yang]

This is Bowen Yang from Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

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[Marin Somerset]

Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News Marant Talks Money listeners. Are you a Bloomberg subscriber? If you are not, here is why you should be. You will get ad free episodes of this podcast and access to my marantalks Money newsletter. You'll also get access to John's award winning newsletter, Money Distilled. And you'll get access to subscriber only events like the one we are going to be hosting on March 17th. See the link in the show notes to sign up to that. Finally, of course, you will get unlimited access to bloomberg.com and the Bloomberg app, including exclusive stories and premium market tools. Subscribe [e-mail] podcastoffer. Welcome to Meryn Talks Money, the podcast in which people who know the markets explain the markets. I am Meryn Somerset to welcome Web this week I am speaking with Fiona Yang, Portfolio Manager on the Invesco Asia Dragon. Fiona specializes in Asian equities and she is the perfect person to help us all understand where Asia fits into our portfolios this year. Fiona, welcome to Marian Talks Money.

[Fiona Yang]

Hello, Marianne. Thanks for having me on the show.

[Marin Somerset]

Well, it's going to be good. Now, listen, your space is absolutely huge. You know, you're covering pretty much all of Asia, bar Japan. Right. All of that counts as emerging Asia. So you're covering this vast area, which is international investors were not paying nearly enough attention to until relatively recently. So until even, you know, a year ago, it was all America, America, America, American exceptionalism. And now we've begun to see this rotation out of the US and into every other interesting market there is, which is quite a lot of the ones that you cover in your trust had excellent performance last year, partly as a result. Now these markets aren't looking quite as cheap as they were. Right. But maybe you could just talk us through the way that rotation is working for your market.

[Fiona Yang]

Yeah, I think 2025 was a year of rebalancing, I would like to call it, because of external factors like the weak US dollar as well as domestic aging like the central bank in Asia basically cutting interest rate to try to stimulate economic growth. That just attracted a lot of immensely attention. Combined with Asia such as Taiwan and Korea being the engine behind the global AI revolution. I do think earnings growth combined with valuation RE rating has really driven the Asia market to outperform a lot of the other developed market. And we're heading into 2026, a lot of investors are thinking about rebalancing their global portfolio. Increasingly they want to diversify further into Asia and emerging Asia.

[Marin Somerset]

I mean, it's not just Asia, obviously, it's emerging markets around the world. But for purposes of this podcast, we're sticking with Asia. But again, we've already made this mistake almost before we've even started by referring to Asia as one big homogeneous mass, which of course it isn't. And a lot of people, when they think about the Asian markets or the emerging Asian markets, they will think about China and they'll forget about all the other markets. So these are all very different, right? We have to look at them as very separate countries and separate markets.

[Fiona Yang]

Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the biggest misconception about Asia is this is China and the rest. But reality, as you pointed out, there are so many different countries, therefore different sectors within Asia. Look at India is a country that can generate 10% nominal GDP growth. You can't really find very rare to find the developed market. And then you look at the Southeast Asia bloc. There are just so many countries that benefit from the diversification of manufacturing hub away from China. Or more of a China plus one strategy. And then the tech sector. Asia is not just emerging technology, it's more like the uncontested leader in a lot of the global tech sector, in memory, in foundry and etc. So all of this just make Asia extremely exciting place to invest. Okay, well why don't we start.

[Marin Somerset]

Actually I tell you what, before we move on to looking at what's referred to as the emerging economies in China, although sort of slightly ridiculous, the very idea that South Korea could be considered emerging at this point is ridiculous of course, but Japan is not included in that. So let's briefly if you don't mind, talk about is there any spillover effect from the election in Japan? So we have this super majority now for Takechi and that means that she will be able to drive forward all her priorities inside Japan. And I know that one of the worries there, there are that many worries around it, but there are worries to do with Japan's fiscal position and there are of course worries to do with any ratcheting up of tension in the whole region as a result of defense spending. And talking about China in Japan, is there anything in that that might spill over to change the conversation that we're about to have?

[Fiona Yang]

I think though in the China and Japan relationship it's always been a bit tricky. So I've actually in Japan for holiday earlier this year, one of the main thing happening is Chinese tour groups are not fly into Japan anymore. That's definitely a big hit to the Japanese tourism industry. But then at the flip side, it's just they might have found the Australians or the other nationals who want to go to Japan because the current. Exactly. I think the vacancy at the skiing resort I go to pretty much get filled immediately when they release those vacancies. So there could be a bit of a transition period. But I think the impact is manageable. And in terms of, you know, let's competitive dynamics, what happened to the versus the Korean one is something that I probably monitor more because for my portfolio we do have significant exposure to the Korean exporters and the currency always play a part in terms of the pricing competitiveness. So the current portfolio I guess is concentrated a lot in the Korean memory space. I think Japan at this point doesn't really have a strong contender as compared to the Korean memory producers. So I feel relatively comfortable with that exposure in Korea. Okay.

[Marin Somerset]

That's the first elephant in the room for this area and the second is demographics. So I just wanted to get that talk about that a little before we move on in that historically, say 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, when Iran was looking at the investment opportunities across Asia, one of the things that we said would be growing populations, growing middle class populations, rising prosperity, et cetera. And then there began to be people going, oh, I don't know, maybe China is going to get old before it gets rich. And then we've had this much faster than anyone ever expected fall off in fertility rates. I mean, I'm sure we both saw those numbers in China showing fewer than 8 million births in China last year, which was a bit of a shock to the system even for people who'd been very worried about demographics. And we have Taiwan, Korea, all these countries have written up very low fertility rates. And even places like Vietnam, et cetera, where we thought fertility would remain higher for longer, falling below replacement rates. Does that sort of massive macro first change anything about the way you see the region?

[Fiona Yang]

Yeah, that's a great question and a very long term question. And I do hope the sitting here in Singapore is one of the places that have one of the lowest birth rate in the region and in China as well. Looking at my peer groups, the incentives the government has introduced for them to have two babies or even three kids is just not enough to incentivize to have more. So this structural trend is undeniable. I think that why a lot of the countries are trying to evolve their policies instead of, you know, labor focused manufacturing, they're trying to move up the value added K, they're trying to do more electronics, using more of robotics as well as automation, try to move away from the labor intensive sector to to different drivers. Why the structural challenge remains and we need to be selected in terms of the sector we might want to have export to. And then there is the added sort of silver investment theme that increasingly you start to see companies that are just attracting to the need of the retiree because instead of trying to cater to the kids, now everyone is trying to sell say the hospitality industry as well as even retiree education, re education industry. All of this are gaining more traction in Asia. I think the good thing is again it's a diverse region with many countries and it's just every single country has a different stage of their aging population. Korea could be the first one and China will follow suit. So for Asia fund manager myself then they're just different sort of tracks you can check to and imply what could happen to some of the other countries when they enter the aging demographic a bit later on anyway, that's probably a

[Marin Somerset]

bigger and different conversation. Maybe we'll pick that one up another time. But let's go on to. Why don't we talk about how you invest. When I look at what you, what you do and what your trust does, it's very clear this is a valuation driven and valuation focused method of investing across this insanely big region. So tell us a little bit about how you do that.

[Fiona Yang]

Yeah, I'm very happy to chat about that. That's something that I do every single day. So I would say we probably differentiate by three key point. The first one is, as you correctly point out is valuation discipline is just we try to find undervalued, mispriced opportunities. Everything basically has a fair value and we try to buy it at a point of, you know, market is fearful. We try to buy it when the stock price is significantly below the fair value assessment that we have established for the company itself. And the second point is we try to be long term. I think a lot of times too much actively the stock itself is long desirable. The market is extremely volatile. Adding frequent activities will not really help a lot of investors. So what we do, the typical holding period is around three to five years. We just want to be patient with our investment case, try to grow together with the portfolio company and this so called valuation gap really need to give them time to close. If you look at our portfolio companies, a lot of them we have been holding them for more than a decade. NetEase is a good example, is a gaming company in China. We have hold it more than a decade. If you hold onto the stock over the past 10 years it's pretty much has gone through a lot of volatility in the market in terms of regulation as well as share price. But market cap has grown over six times. That just shows that the power of staying in the seat, understanding the stock level drivers behind a single company. And last but not least, we are comparing investors. This follows a more classic capital cycle. If we try to find areas of the market that other investors might not like. If a certain sector or company is starved of capital, starved of investment, that's exactly when the remaining winners of the sector could enjoy higher return as well as having the pricing power of that customer. So those are the three key pillars I would say about how we invest in Asia and general for our investors.

[Marin Somerset]

Okay. And in a region with thousands and thousands of listed companies. How do you narrow your universe down to even begin to analyze those companies?

[Fiona Yang]

I think being contrarian investor, a lot of times we would try to identify opportunity in the sectors in the countries that other People might say not investable. I think a good example to look at is China probably 24 months ago. But most global investors were shown away from that market. But we are actually seeing world leading companies being thrown out of the box water trading at extremely cheap multiples. Yes there are macro concerns but it doesn't really impact the fundamentals of the company that we invest in. They still gain market share, they still try to improve their margin. A good example that we have picked up over the past few years is hworld. It's one of the leading hotel chain operator in China. So a bit like Hilton. And what they did in China was extremely good. Throughout the extended COVID lockdown they tried to gain more market share as well as improve their operating efficiency. So they come out of the whole crisis being a much leaner operation, much higher margin. So we are very happy with the operational performance of the company. But with what's going on with the macro noises, H1 is trading at an extreme discount as compared to the global gears.

[Marin Somerset]

Okay, interesting. And what about dividends and income? And I see the trust has a reasonably high dividend yield. 3 1/2. How important to that is, is that to you when you are stock picking?

[Fiona Yang]

Yeah, so I think that's another common misconception maybe of some of the investor on Asia. They might think Asia is more growthy, less dividend but we have really seen a paradigm shift in that over the past five years. Korea is a good example. We discussed briefly earlier the value app initiatives is really trying to drive the Korean corporate to increase their shareholder return in the form of dividend as well as buyback. Though that has their significant improve that market dividend yield. And then if you look across Asia, similar stories can be found in Singapore as well as even the Chinese state owned enterprises. They have all driven up their shareholder return over the past few years. Asia as a region we can get a dividend yield about 2 to 2% and above. And then for the trust we actually have a bonus scheme in the sense that we pay out 4% of the NAB to our trust holders so that give it a bit more gig on top of the regional index dividend yield.

[Marin Somerset]

Okay, so this is using this ability that is peculiar to the investment trust industry where you can pay out part of the capital as income. And a lot of trusts now do this paying out 4% a year to give investors, maybe aimed particularly at older investors to make sure they get a regular income every year regardless of the actual income level of the trust. Exactly.

[Fiona Yang]

And the majority of that dividend is funded by the trash dividend received from our portfolio company. But the additional comes from the capital.

[Matt Rogers]

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[Bowen Yang]

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[Marin Somerset]

Thy ticket, lady Jennifer of Coolidge. Well, many thanks good sir. Here is my Discover card. They accept Discover at Renaissance Fairs? Yeah, they do. Here Discover is accepted at the places I love to shop. Geth with the times. With the times.

[Fiona Yang]

You're playing the loot.

[Marin Somerset]

Yeah. And it sounds pretty good, right?

[Matt Rogers]

Discover is accepted at 99% of places

[Marin Somerset]

that take credit cards nationwide based on

[Matt Rogers]

the February 2025 Nielsen report.

[Marin Somerset]

Why don't we have a look at some of your biggest markets individually? So you said earlier that you were invested in China when everyone else was running slightly scared a little while ago. Are you still pretty bullish on China? Or is or is that move gone as far as it's going to go, do you think?

[Fiona Yang]

I think China might not be the bargain bang like what we have seen two years back given how much the market has rallied. But then again, I think it is a big market with steps as far as breadth for bottom up stock pickers like ourselves to really find attractive stock value for our trust holders. So we remain invested in the market. I actually brought the trust board of directors to a China trip end of last year. I think everyone was just amazed by the level of development that we have observed over the past two years because we do the trip every other year. And it's just amazing to see some of the robotics company look at the EV company on the progress that they had made in terms of products, in terms of their costs. So again, there are just so many opportunities for us to pick from. That's why we remain excited about investing.

[Marin Somerset]

Yeah, I suppose the pushback against that would be that it's not necessarily the case that either economic growth or that technological development will translate into rising share prices in a difficult political environment.

[Fiona Yang]

Yeah, I think this digital environment, actually that's probably one of the main concerns that people have as well as the other one is the housing market. That one of the most common pushback that we get from clients, but the reality, I think the current, the policy regime do provide a very good sort of environment for technology companies to develop their products. And that progress that we have seen in terms of ev, in terms of robotics, in terms of AI adoption in China and then on the other side of the housing market, housing bubble. I think China is fortunate enough to avoid a butt of housing bubble. It has been a very painful sort of a rating period for the real estate sector for the real estate developer. But I do think it's a better setup than let everything run through the hilltop and then suddenly birthed. That might take China 10 or even 20 years to come back where it was. So it has been painful. But for the firm itself, I think we have avoided a lot of the real estate Investment in China itself. Now we are actually getting a little bit more hopeful of what to come with this sector because regulation starting to loosen a little bit more and we start to see activities pick up here and there, especially in Hong Kong. So when the market is stifled, maybe it's a sector that we can spend more time on and try to do a bit more.

[Marin Somerset]

I suppose there's two things to say about the housing residential construction problem in China. The first is that without household formation, it's quite difficult for that market to pick up again. And if we're talking about very fast falling fertility and smaller number of babies, smaller number of marriages, it's household formation that drives housing purchase. Right. So that's, that's a problem.

[Fiona Yang]

So I think that was one of the key reasons why we stayed away. You know pricing was affordability was very poor, especially in the bigger cities, the capital cities of China. And then house information rate as well as the immigration into the tier one cities is slowing down. So all of that just doesn't support the demand side of things. And then looking at the supply, I think five years ago this to keep coming up into the China market but at least over the past five years that is committed many then it's really a question of when the supply demand can balance out. So we find a bottom of the pricing cycle in China real estate market we start to see some signs of that might still be.

[Marin Somerset]

I suppose the other thing about it is that a huge amount of the Chinese population savings have traditionally gone into properties. Some 70% of net wealth is tied up in property. And any shift away from that into maybe putting their savings into the market instead or possibly something more productive than blocks of flats is a positive long term positive definitely.

[Fiona Yang]

And I and we start to notice them spending more money on travel experiences, especially the younger population. So coming back again to the age world investment is also trying to really understand what the new generations want. They might not want to spend all their savings on a house, but they can spend a small amount of money here and there on consumer product or traveling to really increase the enjoyment of. Yeah.

[Marin Somerset]

So do you think that consumer boom that we've been waiting for in China for such a long time might finally be nearly upon us?

[Fiona Yang]

I think everyone has given up for the housing market to rebound and the inflection of the stock market has certainly enriched a certain group of the Chinese consumers. They have pent up demand for quite a while now they start to feel happy and try to spend again. I think in the past investor also had a misconception that consumption in China equals to housing price but it's not like that. It doesn't happen everywhere in the world. Even UK housing price hasn't gone up, hasn't done well. I think UK customers do spend so I think Chinese passengers are coming out of that cycle and they do want to spend in certain areas. So again because business have to find out where they want to spend, which companies can gain more market share, where to ride that way.

[Marin Somerset]

What other sectors are you interested in in China then we talked about the hotel company. As I say this is such a massive market, where are you focused there?

[Fiona Yang]

So another top holding of the trust is kind of resources there. So this is one of the largest brewery in China. They have about 25% market share. They used to trade over 50 times price to earnings ratio before COVID and since the deflationary cycle and the consumption worry in China hit the market they now trade at the low kings price to earnings ratio a level that we see extremely attractive. The world has no. There is constant concern about the Again the younger people do not want to drink anymore. I do applaud to their health consciousness but again China Resources Beer do have their own narratives of increasing their brand premiumization. They acquired the Heineken brand, their China operation about five, six years ago I think then they have integrated the product distribution into their portfolio continue to increase Heineken product volume as a percentage of total volume and that premiumization really helped them with ASP growth as well as margin expansion. I just think the current valuation doesn't give them justice and management have been increasing shareholder return aggressively over the past few years. So effectively we get paid while waiting for market to realize the underlying value of this company.

[Marin Somerset]

Can we talk a bit about Korea which as I say I wrote about a bit 18 months ago so saying look, this is following the corporate governance path of Japan and it's too cheap and it has done that to a large degree followed that path in regulatory terms certainly. But it's not really cheap anymore, is it?

[Fiona Yang]

Yes and no I guess because I guess Korea has done extremely well 2025 it doubled in the US dollar term, almost doubled in US dollar term. I think it had hit several sweet spots the value app couple of governance initiatives as you highlighted the second one is really the strong cyclical upturn of the memory cycle and Skinix sometimes electronics make a big proportion of the cost BE index and I would say historically we always have reviewed the Korean discount for poor shareholder return Pro corporate governance is a bit exaggerated. A lot of the companies we owned for years in our portfolio have actually been steadily increasing their shareholder return. The top down initiative from the government to do it on a broad base with a characteristics initiatives that really changed investors mindset of the market. Suddenly we had seen the broad based stock cancellation, buyback shares cancellation and increase in payout et cetera and a lot of our portfolio company just continue their past and all of this basically narrow the so called Korean discount that we have seen in the past. And then for the memory cycle I think it's just completely separate from this theme memory. If you look at 40 years ago there are 20 or even more memory producers out there. And fast forward to where we are today after serious of aggressive competition we pretty much only left with three global eating players that oligopolistic structures just make this industry a lot more predictable as compared to before. And if we look at what they have done over the past few years they have been burned in the last cycle so they have decided to all keep that capex a lot more rational. So the supply that we have seen in the past few years she's been pick tight and AI demand surge definitely not in all the memory producers capacity plan three years back as a result of that we have just seen this extreme bump in any of the memory price that you name it, it had gone up at an unprecedented rate. Even though all of them are deciding to increase that back in 2026 we won't be that supply coming to the market probably 27 or even 2028 which means the tight supply and happiness will remain for the remainder of the year. That's fine for the fund with the investors in memory but again we talk about how we invest with the valuation discipline with where share price has been over the past year the level of return which has come down. So we just take some profit off the table.

[Marin Somerset]

Yeah. So feeling a little bubbly. I mean that theme translates across to Taiwan right. Where tech is the big driver. Are you happy there?

[Fiona Yang]

So Taiwan is the AI theme is very prevalent and more broad based as compared to Korea. So for Taiwan our topic in the market TSMC would we see them as the uncontested global leader in foundry space. And if you look at the AI revolution, global revolution GSMG is basically still the engine behind all of that. That remains as the biggest holding of the trust. But then there are selective pockets of the Taiwanese market reducing expectation is extremely high in terms of the volume shipment of the product content creation, the dollar content of the products in the AI server as well as the margin expansion that people Expect only some of the Taiwanese companies to experience. So we do have an outerweight position in Taiwan right now just because of the heightened expectation, heightened valuation as compared to history. The risk reward just doesn't look as attractive for the broader market.

[Marin Somerset]

Sticking with Taiwan, how much of a concern is that when you're investing in Taiwan? That that intense geopolitical stress?

[Fiona Yang]

Yeah, I think it's definitely a culture that we have. We always keep back of our mind because for my team we don't just manage Asia money, also emerging market money and we have actually been to the Russian situation. So you know, two years ago when we talk about whether China is investing or one of the key debates in whether the Chinese market, if anything happened to Taiwan, between Taiwan and China, that the Chinese market could effectively go to zero in our index. So that's a risk we constantly discuss. But then, you know, investors give us money to try to manage a portfolio of Asia assets. We do take geopolitical risks into consideration. But I do think our end investors, they want to have a broad based exposure to the Asia region. Otherwise they could have chosen a bit more of a country allocation. Try to avoid investing China or investing Taiwan if they do want to have an Asia fund. Our goal is really try to manage all this risk, the important risk, the tariff risk, all of these things. I'll try to take all of my stocks that have the minimized impact from any of this and TSMC being the biggest holding the trust. I do think their diversification of their fundries across the region and go to the US is the right strategy for them to survive the long term.

[Marin Somerset]

So what are your other main worries? We worry about geopolitics. Obviously you worry a lot about valuations in the extent which particularly AR related stocks are in any kind of bubble bubble territory less so now obviously what else have these long list of potential risks? What are the ones that keep you up at night?

[Fiona Yang]

Again it's bottom up, top picker. So I do have a few things that I like it keep me awake at night. I think the first thing is try to not overpay with metallication. It's expensive for individual stocks or for individual markets. I try to stay away from it. I think India being the example of that. So that was one of the market we were aggressively underweight in the second half of 2023. That is just risk of overpay. You don't want to be the last one to buy the hype. And then the second risk I think about is my company's balance sheet. But I do See debt as a heavy backpack. When the road is flat, anyone can carry it.

[Marin Somerset]

When you hit a hill really the

[Fiona Yang]

one with the heavy debt can be dragged down. I want to pick the stocks as long term investor to be the marathon winners. So I do pay a lot of attention to companies balance sheet. And then last but not least this diversification. Is my portfolio diversified enough as it should being driven by this super AI cycle Or there is. I actually wanted to show there is a wide range of drivers, different sectors, idiosyncratic drivers of the individual company that if one road hit the bump the other ones will actually make it all right. And how are you managing currency risk?

[Marin Somerset]

Lots of talk about China and currencies at the moment about where the dollar might go from here and how that relationship might work out. How do you think about that?

[Fiona Yang]

Yeah, the reality is if you think about the Asia currency still have been relatively stable versus each other over the longer term. I think last year was if NATO prominence reversion of that trend. But that is mostly of a US dollar weakness against all the currencies. So Taiwan is a good example. We see a sudden step up in the Taiwan dollar against because US dollar at one point in 2025 that really gave market a big shock. But what is good from the Taiwanese company is they do have a lot of revenue as well as cost in US dollar or even with the MACD currency appreciation we have actually seen the company level managing pretty well. So it's a black thing that we have investing in Asia. There's no major currency shocks that we have seen so far. Touch wood on China. I think they are a lot more cautious with regard to how they move the currency. There was a hiccup a few years back I think currency suddenly that just bring a lot of negative consequences with regard to capital outflow as well as how UIs at Global all the other countries perceive China. So now we can see them a lot steadier with the CNY less dollar exchange rate. So all of that for what it means for us. We really bring it down to automatic stock level. If this is the exporter we will be a lot more careful with their currency exposure. But then a lot of the portfolio company are actually domestic facing. They don't really need to manage that currency risk too aggressively.

[Marin Somerset]

Let's go back to India. So India expensive any interesting holdings there in the portfolio that aren't too expensive that you're happy with? Yeah.

[Fiona Yang]

So the fund is always the Indian financial again we are not trying to buy index we try to buy the Stocks India at the index level we still think it's expensive trading over 20 tank for the level of both of the next issue. Not very attractive. But then selective financial in the Indian market looks very very interesting. Finance is a portfolio company that we bought during the COVID crisis. It is a non bank financial institution. They give loans like secondhand auto loans, gold loans to the rural SMEs. This company has managed its credit cycle extremely well and grow diversified. The portfolio first started with the secondhand auto loan then gradually to all the other loan segments catering to the thankful holder customers through the six years growing together with B RAM with pqp the shareholder and supporting the growth and utility Gather capital funding from Muft, one of the biggest Japanese financial institution to giving them access to even cheaper credit enabling them to grow. They have a target of growing their loan book at 18 annum for the next few years. So we are still one of the top holdings in the trust.

[Marin Somerset]

Okay, interesting. All right, well let's skip to Vietnam which was everyone's favorite emerging Asia market for a long time, wasn't it? We had constant stories about Vietnam and of course there was some dedicated Vietnam trust. But how are you feeling about that that story hold?

[Fiona Yang]

I think Vietnam has up and down but also because of the politics happening there. And what we are seeing now is a period of relatively stable politics that just provide a market to really big stocks. If I look at the stocks in Vietnam, there are actually very exciting individual companies to pick from. Recently we met with the ID Services company in Vietnam. They are trying to address a different customer cohort as compared to the Indian IT services company that be extremely successful and valuation doesn't look too expensive. With all this global AI trying to destroy IT services company as software company. That's something that we are proactively working on. And then we also own some of the customer Staples company in Vietnam. In terms of the demographic trend Vietnam the aging population is definitely at a slower pace as compared to other regions in the market. We have seen how the other consumer company has evolved in other markets. So we feel there are pocket opportunities in Vietnam as well. I think as foreign investors we still face the constraint of ownership threshold. The best company might not be available to buy for Investco in revenue and fast but that the struggle will continue to face in the market. Over time we have observed market access has improved. Yeah.

[Marin Somerset]

And are there any smaller markets in the region that people simply aren't paying attention to and should be?

[Fiona Yang]

Yeah. So I think Southeast Asia as a block is very interesting. We talk about this diversification of global supply chain China plus one it benefits countries like not just Vietnam, but also Thailand as well as Indonesia. And if you look at the valuation extremely cheap price book ratio about 1.3, 1.54 times as a discount to your own trading history as well as the Asia global market. But then that region, all this wealth creation from supply chain diversification can actually sustain decades of growth. So you're really getting a front feet of rapid growth at a bargain price. We are all await in Southeast Asia having broad based definite sector exposure there.

[Marin Somerset]

So all in all Fiona, you would expect I think this rotation maybe out of the US and into all the countries that you're interested to continue over the next couple of years. So even though valuations across the region are not as low as they were, it's still a significant discount perhaps to the global markets as a whole. So you, I'm guessing here, assuming you're going to say yes, pretty happy with your positions over the next year or so?

[Fiona Yang]

Yes, absolutely. I think for investors, you know, in 2026, maybe they should check their home buyers, check whether they are overexposed to US assets. Even as you own asset protection, the 500 index, your exposure to the US tech might be over 40%. The concentration risk is real. So Asia do offer a cheaper alternative. Getting you access to a vast region of different countries and different sector exposure is real diversification. Not just another picker.

[Marin Somerset]

Fiona, thank you so much for joining us today. That was really interesting conversation.

[Fiona Yang]

Thank you Maren for having me on the show.

[Marin Somerset]

Thanks for listening to this week's Maren Talks Money. If you like us Share, rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. Also keep sending your questions or comments to marinmoneyloombug.net you can also follow me and John on Twitter or x. I am MarionSW and John is JohnSTrepik. This episode was hosted by Meet Marin Sunset Web. It was produced by Sam Asadi and Moses Andam Sound designed by Blake Maples and Aaron Casper. A special thanks of course to Fiona Yang.

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