OREANDA-NEWS. March 29, 2016.  Kenneth Tang sees himself as a performance junkie.

The 44-year-old senior portfolio manager with Nikko AM Asia has a deep conviction to be the best in what he does.

“There’s a saying in our industry that the holy grail of fund management is our performance and track record. We live by constantly persevering and refining our edge,” Tang said.

“When I started as a young analyst and fund manager 20 years ago, one of my earliest mentors gave me this piece of advice: ‘You live and die by your stocks – your track record defines who you are, and no one can ever take that away from you’,” he added.

Tang has nearly two decades of equity investment experience. Before Nikko AM, he was lead portfolio manager for PineBridge Investments in Singapore and managing director at Black River Asset Management. Prior to that, he was a research analyst cum portfolio manager for Credit Agricole Asset Management, now known as Amundi Asset Management, for over 10 years.

Tang, who joined Nikko AM in December 2013, manages its Balanced portfolios, and together with Lai Yeu Huan, its Singapore and ASEAN portfolios.

Nikko’s eight Singapore funds each focuses on a portfolio of 30-40 stocks with a three-year investment view. The Japanese firm, which acquired DBS Asset Management in 2011, has over US\\$146 billion of assets under management as at 31 December 2015.

Nikko AM’s Singapore Dividend Equity Fund was the Best-Performing Equity Fund in Singapore for three and five years at The Edge-Lipper Awards 2016, and the Gold winner for Singapore equities at the Fund Selector Asia Awards 2016.

Last December, Nikko AM garnered top honours in Singapore Equities at Institutional Investor’s Asia Investment Management Awards 2015. The Shenton Thrift Fund also won a Lipper Leader rating for its consistent returns, low expenses and superior total return vis-a-vis its peers in a ranking commissioned by the Investment Management Association of Singapore (IMAS).

Active is In

The Shenton Thrift Fund has a 29-year history and a management fee of 0.75% since inception – the lowest in the industry.

“The Shenton Thrift Fund offers investors a strong combination of performance, as well as cost and efficiency appeal,” said Tang, who has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a major in Finance from the National University of Singapore.

“We are especially proud of Nikko AM’s track record in Singapore – it truly demonstrates the DNA of our team and the success of our stock selection.”

The case for active managers in the industry is now more important than ever before, he added.

Over the last few years, global equity markets have been driven by non-fundamental factors, largely resulting from several rounds of quantitative easing by central banks and the rise of passive funds like ETFs.

“There has been a large amount of money going into Exchange Traded Funds since 2008. These funds are focused on momentum trading strategies, chasing the index for the sake of the index, rather than fundamentals,” Tang said.

“Today, QE is more or less over. Fundamentals are coming back, with the focus returning to growth, as many sectors of the economy are affected by the global slowdown.”

For Nikko AM, which is unconstrained by any benchmark and an active stock picker, “these are interesting times,” he noted.

“We’re proud to be active managers, and the active proposition is more exciting now than in the past.”

Singapore may not be terribly inspiring as a macro story, but when it comes to stock-picking, active management or alpha1 is playing a bigger role today, and will continue to throw up exciting opportunities in the market, he added.

“We are cautiously optimistic on Singapore. Its outlook in these times of uncertainty is more positive than negative.”

The domestic economy is currently undergoing a structural transition, recalibrating its growth levers in a bid to boost competitiveness.

“The focus on productivity means growth will continue to be very modest – around 2% a year for the next few years,” Tang said.

In this context, an index-hugging strategy could be risky.

“The Straits Times Index consists mostly of financial and property stocks. These are sectors that could see the highest risks from credit deleveraging, and the greatest disappointment in terms of earnings growth.”

Value Trap

In the throes of a growth crisis, where corporate profits and the economy are slowing, value investing may also be unsuitable.

“Singapore is cheap, so is China, so is Europe. Valuations can stay cheap and get even cheaper. Today, we have an oversupply of value and a scarcity of growth.”

Instead, investors should focus on stocks that offer high dividend stability and dividend growth, such as infrastructure trusts, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and restructuring plays, Tang noted.

“The theme of restructuring Singapore Inc will continue to feature in the corporate landscape, and is driven by companies’ desire to improve shareholder returns, cut costs and reinvent their growth models.”

A poster child of corporate transformation and innovation is airport terminal services provider SATS, one of the top 10 holdings in the Singapore Dividend Equity Fund.

SATS has invested in automation to reduce reliance on labour, and broadened revenue streams beyond inflight catering services by building a food distribution and processing operation.

“The company is a clear example of how one can reinvent oneself by investing in productivity and growth. It’s now more of a service company than an industrial or old economy stock, and was one of the best performers in Singapore last year,” Tang added.

Focus on Fundamentals

Technology services companies are also interesting, he said.

“These stocks are a play on trends in the auto sector, where cars are becoming more intelligent and safety is increasingly important. Quite a few of these companies are using their precision engineering abilities to move into the automotive supply chain.”

It’s important to identify beneficiaries of the Singapore economy’s transition.

“Our service ecosystem – such as healthcare, tourism, logistics and technology services – is where growth will be in the next few years. While services are a big part of the Singapore economy, they are not as well-represented at the stock index level,” he said.

Overall, Singapore as an investment story remains relevant.

“The STI may be boring now, but you should look beyond the index and think about what it will become in 10 years’ time. That’s what you want to invest in – the new Singapore and the future constituents of the STI,” he added.

This bottom-up1 approach defines the core of Nikko AM’s fundamentals-driven investment philosophy.

“Our view of Asia is that the markets are inefficient, and through fundamental research, where we’re active on the ground, we can take advantage of that inefficiency to deliver returns to investors,” Tang noted.

The key is selecting mispriced stocks that offer sustainable earnings and dividend growth.

“Instead of looking for value – since what is cheap can get cheaper – we seek stocks with characteristics of positive fundamental change. This is the catalyst that can unlock value.”

Longevity is another crucial factor in the selection process, he said. “We’re not keen on cyclical businesses – only strong structural growth stories that are here to stay, which can offer both sustainable dividends and returns.”