Long-Term Investing Ideas in a Volatile Market with Comgest CEO Arnaud Cosserat

Sustainability is overlooked by the market. Sustainable companies are undervalued most of the time.

The financial headlines have done a great job of continually reminding us what a crazy year 2022 has been. It feels like every news show, podcast, and article has been quick to point out the calamity being caused by uncontrollable inflation and the financial chaos that will accompany an upcoming recession.

Is that really the case though?

The media's job is to get your attention. Viewership ratings are more important to them than accuracy. Their hyperbolic language, exaggerated market forecasts, and consistently slamming the "Buy button" come across like endlessly screaming into a megaphone.

Perhaps there is instead a more diligent way for investors to interpret this unusual Year of the Tiger. Are financial metrics like inflation and interest rate increases causes for sounding the alarm -- or are they just reflections of the normal expansion and contraction of the global economy? Are consumers really running for the hills and burying their heads in the sand -- or is unemployment under control and are luxury brands still thriving?

And how do those who are managing billions of dollars and investing it into equities actually feel about the status quo?

To answer those questions, we've brought in a team of experts. 7investing CEO Simon Erickson recently interviewed Comgest CEO Arnaud Cosserat and two of his portfolio managers, Rick Mercado and Richard Kaye. Comgest is an independent global asset management firm based in Paris, who manages $35 billion and has a knack for finding long-term growth opportunities.

In the discussion, Arnaud, Richard, and Rick shared their thoughts about the macroeconomy and why it doesn't have a significant impact on their decade(s)-long investing time horizon. They believe 2022 has given patient investors an opportunity to buy great businesses at very attractive prices. Investing is less about jumping in and out of the stock market, and more about "finding quality and managing risks".

The team dug into the semiconductor industry and described several of the long-term trends that are driving it forward. Generous government subsidies and an increasing content of chips required in electric vehicles and in telecom infrastructure are leading to aggressive expansion of the semiconductor supply chain. The Netherlands' ASML (Nasdaq: ASML), Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM), and Japan's LaserTec (TSE: 6920) might be good investing opportunities who are capitalizing on these trends.

Elsewhere, Comgest also sees an opportunity for retail, especially strong brands who are built to endure. Italy's Ferrari(NYSE: RACE) has a captive customer base and a strong order backlog, America's Costco (Nasdaq: COST) has a membership model that provides resilience against inflation, India's HDFC Bank (NYSE: HDB) is capitalizing on a vast increase in mortgages, and Japan's Don Quijote (TSE: 7532) is the country's largest discount retailer.

Investing internationally also carries its share of risks, including the ever-evolving relationship between corporations and governments. The team discussed the rising geopolitical tensions between China and Taiwan, as well as how "long-tail" risks (i.e. unlikely events that would have significant impacts if they occurred) influence their investing approach.

Lastly, Simon and the Comgest team discuss how investors should think about valuation. Several stocks are selling at lower multiples this year than they did in 2021. But are they attractive yet for investors who have a ten-year time horizon?

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