Based in Hong Kong, our team is made up of 12 investment professionals. We take a long-term perspective based on an industry focus across the region. We invest in quality companies using an active, bottom-up investment process. Our goal is to identify companies that can outpace market expectations and deliver:
- High and/or improving return on capital
- Strong balance sheets
- Consistent cash-flow generation
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Asian Equities
Mayur Nalamalla
Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer & Head of Asian Equities, RBC Global Asset Management (Asia) Limited
So, Asia is a dynamic, interesting part of the world and is the key driver, and has been actually for the last 15 years, the key driver of global growth.
Its been limited to certain countries perhaps having an outsized impact on that global growth. Chinas being the most obvious, but more recently its been India. But were talking about two thirds of the worlds population residing in our region.
And that in itself should give you an idea of the potential, in terms of growth, in terms of the importance of markets, in a global context.
Weve had a team thats been together for 10 years. Weve got a stable investment process thats delivered decent returns over a fairly long period of time. Its a very difficult part of the world to invest in because there are inherent dangers of investing in emerging markets and in Asia in particular, but that local knowledge stands us in good stead as custodians of clients’ capital.
Theres a lot of noise being located on the ground in Hong Kong, but it also gives you incredible insights into what makes markets and stock markets and economies thrive and work in the Asian region. We get to go and see companies.
We get to go and see factories on the ground. We can talk to people who are involved in the supply chain, suppliers, customers. And it gives us a really nice, rounded knowledge of whats going on locally. And theres no real substitute for that local knowledge, I think, and the experience that we get from traveling around the region and being very close to where the action is.
The understanding of funds management and the science behind it continues to evolve. And the important thing as fund managers is we never know everything and were constantly learning. And I think in the last 10 to 15 years, the science continues to get more interesting. Its, you know, whether youre using risk models and how risk models have evolved over time, understanding what it is in your portfolio.
Idiosyncratic risk versus factor risk. And I think more recently, as well as modeling that, I think the use of quant tools that will eventually morph into AI type tools, these are going to be really interesting developments for fund managers, where I think the use of technology with the human element can help drive better investment outcomes and investment returns.
Its just constantly trying to have an open mind to trying to improve how you think about stock markets and equities in general.
Responsible/ethical
We favour companies that adhere to good environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices, believing that these factors are relevant to a company’s risk/return profile and have a bearing on its long-term sustainability.
Opportunistic
We recognize that short-term market shocks can create opportunities to buy companies at a significant discount to what we assess is the fair value of the underlying business.
Long-term perspective
We take a long-term perspective based on industry focus across the region.
High-conviction
Through high-conviction stock selection, we aim to build portfolios that generate differentiated excess returns over time.
Methodical
We rely on a methodical and consistent empirical process designed with a longer-term view.
Our approach to incorporating ESG factors isn’t just one step in our investment process – it’s embedded throughout. To do this, we access and analyze information from a broad array of sources, including external data providers and, more importantly, on-the-ground channel checks. The data gathered from these sources can be both quantitative and qualitative. We believe that incorporating ESG factors will allow for more robust risk assessments on a stock and portfolio level.
ESG is key to our fundamental, active investment management
Quantitative
- Proprietary quant process/tools
- Accounting quality screens
- In-house audit/quant specialists
- 3rd party research (GMT, MSCI ESG, HOLD Risk, Sustainalytics)
- Aggressive accounting
- Sustainability of cash flows
Qualitative
- In-house research notes and robust checklist with explicit commentary on ESG
- 3rd party data specializing in ESG (e.g. past several years of company’s litigations or media coverage)
- Holistic, thorough, consistent process
- Long-term view
Beyond
- Company meetings/calls
- On-the-ground channel checks
- Sector specialist team structure/discussions
- Interviews (e.g. industry experts, regulators, competitors, local investors)
- Industry/company specific ESG perspective
Entire investment process. Each and every investment team member
Source RBC GAM
Funds we manage (8)
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