77: Maple Brown Abbott's Geoff Bazzan

[i3] Institutional Investment Podcast

Geoff Bazzan is Head of Asia-Pacific Equities at Maple-Brown Abbott. In this episode of the [i3] podcast, we speak about the Asian equity markets, whether value-style investing is suited to the Chinese market and the recent geopolitical upheaval. Please enjoy the show. Overview of podcast with Geoff Bazzan, Maple Brown Abbott 01:00 Starting at Maple Brown Abbott more than 35 years ago 03:30 Changes in investing over the years: more tech, more participants and more news flow 05:00 Starting as a graduate at NAB in banking 06:30 China and the recent volatility 08:30 Xi JinPing’s third term and the market impact 10:30 How do geopolitical events inform your investment decisions? 11:00 Regulatory crackdown in China 13:00 Buying into the selloff 13:30 Value investing and Chinese technology stocks 17:00 India 18:30 The Indian economy has proven very resilient to the oil price this time around 19:00 Demonetisation in India had an unnecessary negative impact on the economy 19:30 It is hard to find stocks that are good value in India now, but our biggest exposure is to financials 21:00 We’ve gone from an overweight to India a few years ago to a modest underweight. Demonetisation in 2016 was an opportunity to pick up some stocks 24:00 Vietnam is an interesting market from a demographic perspective, while Korea is interesting from a contrarian standpoint 26:30 China has committed to carbon neutrality by 2060. How important is that for the stock market? 29:00 In some respects, there is still a green bubble in the Chinese market 31:00 How do you see the interplay between the energy transition and value investing? Value companies tend to be more in the utility and energy space, rather than technology sector? 32:00 The whole Chinese market looks like deep value at the moment 34:00 In Australia, the commodity cycle continues to bail us out, as it has done in the last decade or so. 35:00 Favourite trades over the years?