The case for Asia?

China has witnessed unprecedented growth and development during the past few decades. In only 35 years, China managed to achieve what it took the U.S. more than 100 years to accomplish in terms of economic wealth. China has achieved a GDP per capita which today is at par with the U.S. in the 1950s, the economy having increased from a GDP of USD 200 million in 1978 to USD 9.2 trillion in 2013. This has been achieved by massive investments in first class infrastructure, establishment of competitive companies in a vast array of industries, and an upgraded educational system. The country has urbanized on a scale the world has never witnessed before with more than half of its nearly 1.4 billion people now living in cities. China rapidly moves up the value chain and today has world-leading companies in a broad range of industries. Starting more or less from scratch, China has in a few decades not only become a global leader in automotive and banking but also in some high tech areas such as telecom equipment.

President Xi Jinping has announced extensive reform measures which will secure China’s continued rapid growth in the coming decade. These measures aim to improve allocation of capital, urbanization and demographics.

The infrastructure now largely in place with 3G and 4G mobile networks easily accessed from almost everywhere and used by an increasingly well-educated and connected population, China’s online services are exploding. China has the World’s largest mobile banking market with some 60% of all banking customers completing transactions with a smartphone or a tablet, compared to 45% in the U.S. China also has a higher penetration of online shopping than the U.S. The large internet companies are now exploiting their huge customer base to offer new services. E-commerce giant Alibaba has 800 million retail customers using their payment services and also offers micro lending to small and micro cap companies as well as high yielding money market funds.

Tencent’s WeChat is at the forefront of social media. It has developed from a chat service into an open platform life-style app, integrating various internet services such as communication, social networking with location-based features, photos and videos, gaming and information search. The Chinese internet giants are looking globally for acquisitions, and overall we will see Chinese companies in many industries looking to go global by acquisitions or organic growth.

South Korea is another Asian country which has made a remarkable journey, locally referred to as "The Miracle of the Han River”. Being one of the poorest countries in the 1950’s after the Korean war, the country started rebuilding itself. It is now ranked as the world’s 12th largest economy measured in PPP adjusted GDP. South Korea is the home of world renowned companies in industries such as semi-conductors, smartphones, autos and heavy mechanical engineering. IMF describes South Korea as one of the fastest-growing major economies of the next generation. The fact that the asset management industry still thinks of and classifies South Korea as an "emerging market” whereas for example Greece is classified as a developed market is a good illustration of how investors have not caught up with reality. This is one of the things we at AGCM aim to exploit for our investors.

A third and final example of an Asian market with promising growth companies is Indonesia. The island nation is home to the World’s fourth largest population and has a very favorable demography with over a quarter of the population being below 15 years of age. Indonesia has also witnessed rapid growth and was the second fastest growing G20 economy in 2012 after China. The country’s improved outlook made Fitch upgrade Indonesia’s rating to investment grade in 2011 and it was followed by Moody’s the year after.