Entry Points | Emerging Markets Equities Offer Opportunity for Investors with a Long-term Outlook

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Catalysts in Play: Developed market equity returns, especially those of U.S. stocks, have overshadowed emerging market equities. As a result, many investors may automatically gravitate to U.S. stocks, overlooking the long-term potential of emerging market equities.

Entry Points: Looking back to 1988, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index has outperformed the MSCI World Index by 67 percent. Investors who focus solely on returns generated over a ten-year period may not be aware of this outperformance. While emerging markets equities are associated with higher volatility, this should not diminish the diversification benefits of the asset class. An allocation of as much as 25% in emerging markets improves the return-to-risk ratio of investing only in developed markets.

  • The performance of technology and Internet company shares has had an impact on the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and the MSCI World Index and some of that may be due to the mix of stocks in each index. In 2009, Internet companies had a negligible allocation in the MSCI Emerging Market Index but by the end of 2020 that allocation had increased to 23 percent. Today it is at 13 percent.
  • The overoptimism among U.S. investors for technology and Internet companies was also evident in emerging markets. Boston Partners underweighted its allocation to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index because the technology and Internet stocks included in this index were overpriced.
  • Valuations for technology and Internet companies in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index have come down to the point where they are in line with the overall MSCI Emerging Markets Index.
  • There are attractive opportunities in Asian Internet companies today and, arguably they deserve a higher multiple than the index overall. Profitability among these firms is improving as they increase their focus on existing customers and pull back on costly efforts to expand their customer base.

 

Active Strategy: Boston Partners has two approaches to investing in emerging markets. A traditional long-only, active all cap strategy focuses on traditional value drivers, while a dynamic, low beta approach offers additional sources of alpha and aims for returns similar to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index with significantly lower volatility and risk.

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Definitions:
MSCI EM (Emerging Markets) Index: Captures large and mid cap representation across emerging markets countries covering approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in each country.

The MSCI world index, which is part of The Modern Index Strategy, is a broad global equity index that represents large and mid-cap equity performance across 23 developed markets countries. It covers approximately 85% of the free floatadjusted market capitalization in each country and MSCI world index does not offer exposure to emerging markets.

A low beta value means that the stock is considered less risky but will likely offer low returns as well.

Disclosures:

Boston Partners Global Investors, Inc. (“Boston Partners”) is an Investment Adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Boston Partners is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of ORIX Corporation of Japan (“ORIX”). Boston Partners updated its firm description as of November 2018 to reflect changes in its divisional structure. Boston Partners is comprised of two divisions, Boston Partners and Weiss, Peck & Greer Partners (“WPG”).

The views expressed reflect those of Boston Partners as of November 2, 2022. Any such views are subject to change at any time based on market and other conditions and Boston Partners disclaims any responsibility to update such views. Discussions of market returns and trends are not intended to be a forecast of future events or returns.

Estimates reflect subjective judgments and assumptions. There can be no assurance that developments will transpire as forecasted and that the estimates are accurate.

Risk:
Foreign investors may have taxes withheld. Investing involves risk including the risk of loss of principal. Value investing involves buying the stocks of companies that are out of favor or are undervalued. This may adversely affect an account’s value and return. Stock values fluctuate in response to issuer, political, regulatory, market or economic developments. The value of small and mid-capitalization securities may be more volatile than those of larger issuers, but larger issuers could fall out of favor. Investments in foreign issuers may be more volatile than in the U.S. market, and international investing is subject to special risks including, but not limited to, currency risk associated with non – U.S. dollar denominated securities, which may be affected by fluctuations in currency exchange rates, political, social or economic instability, and differences in taxation, auditing and other financial practices. Investments in emerging markets may increase risks.

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Kathryn Y. Burke

Head of Client Service

Ms. Burke holds a M.A. in East Asian Studies from Duke University and a B.A. degree in Asian Studies from Dartmouth College. Ms. Burke holds FINRA licenses 7 and 63. She has seventeen years of industry experience.

Ms. Burke is the Head of Client Service for Boston Partners. In this role she has management responsibility for the firm’s client service associates and proposal team helping to ensure the client’s needs are met with world class service and satisfaction while driving new business initiatives to develop and enhance relationships in our Institutional and Sub advisory businesses. She joined the firm in February of 2023. Prior to that, Ms. Burke spent fifteen years at Putnam Investments as Director of Client Service managing day-to-day oversight of their Japan and North American clients, and before that, two years as an Account Executive and Proposal Writer at Fidelity Investments in their institutional division.

Newcomb Cole

Consultant Relations Director

Mr. Cole holds a B.S. degree in finance from Syracuse University. He also holds the FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses and has thirty-three years of industry experience.

Mr. Cole is a Consultant Relations Director, with distribution and relationship management responsibilities for consultants and investors in North America. He joined the firm from Intech, where he was a member of the consultant relations team. Prior to this, Newcomb was in a similar role at The Boston Company.

Jason Reid

Senior Compliance Manager

18 Years of Investment Experience

Jason holds a B.S. degree from Fitchburg State University.

Mr. Jason Reid is a Senior Compliance Manager for Boston Partners and Chief Compliance Officer of Boston Partners Securities, LLC, our limited purpose Broker/Dealer, in August 2022. Mr. Reid is also a member of the Boston Partners Sustainability and Engagement team with primary responsibility for proxy voting and proxy voting engagement. His primary responsibilities are Sales and Marketing Compliance, and Broker/Dealer regulatory oversight. He is a member of the GIPS Committee and the Governance Committee. As part of the Sustainability and Engagement Team, Mr. Reid manages the proxy voting process on behalf of the Governance Committee, prepares all engagement materials with issuers regarding proxy matters and does original ESG research on issuers held in Boston Partners’ portfolio. Prior to joining Boston Partners, he was a Compliance Manager, Assistant Vice President, at Natixis Investment Managers. He holds the series 7, 24 registrations.

Jack Birmingham

Product Specialist

4 Years of Investment Experience

4 Years at Boston Partners

Mr. Birmingham holds a B.A. degree in Political Science from Hobart College.

Mr. Birmingham is a Product Specialist for the Boston Partners Value Equity strategies based in the Boston office, responsible for clients, consultants and prospects outside of North America. Prior to this role, Mr. Birmingham joined the firm as an RFP Writer and Database Coordinator in the Marketing Department, where he supported all of the firm’s equity strategies.

Matthew Donovan

Equity Analyst

Mr. Donovan holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Donovan is an equity analyst with Boston Partners. Mr. Donovan is focusing his analytical efforts on Emerging Markets equities. Prior to this, he was a Research Analyst for the Boston Partners Sustainability and Engagement Team. He was responsible for original ESG/Sustainability research on companies held in Boston Partners’ portfolios. Mr. Donovan holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He has one year of experience.

John Zhao

Equity Analyst

Mr. Zhao holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has six years of industry experience.

Mr. Zhao is an emerging markets industry analyst with Boston Partners specializing in fundamental research of stocks held in our Emerging Markets Equity products. Prior to his role at Boston Partners, Mr. Zhao worked as a Private Equity Associate in Salt Lake City and an Investment Banking Associate in Hong Kong.

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Jonah Frank

Equity Analyst

Mr. Frank was a student at Boston University where he earned a B.S. degree in business administration with a concentration in finance and management information systems.

Mr. Frank is an equity research analyst with Boston Partners. Mr. Frank is focusing his analytical efforts on equities within a variety of cyclical industries.

Edward Stansky

Equity Analyst

Mr. Stansky holds a B.S. degree in economics from Duke University and a M.B.A. from NYU’s Stern School of Business. He has six years of investment experience.

Mr. Stansky is an equity research analyst with Boston Partners and has generalist coverage responsibilities. Prior to this role, he worked as a high yield and leveraged loan analyst at DDJ Capital and as an investment banking analyst in debt advisory at BofA Merrill Lynch.

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Marlon Thompson

Equity Trading Assistant

Mr. Thompson holds a B.S. degree in finance from Boston College. He has ten years of industry experience.

Mr. Thompson is an equity trading assistant for Boston Partners. Prior to assuming this role, he worked as a portfolio operations analyst. Before joining the firm, Mr. Thompson held several roles including Vice President of Operations at Benefit Street Partners LLC and positions at International Fund Services (IFS) and Pioneer Investments.

Kara Pattipati, CFA

Relationship Manager

Ms. Pattipati holds an M.A. in International Relations from the University of St. Andrews. She holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation. Ms. Pattipati has ten years of industry experience.

Ms. Pattipati is a member of the Relationship Management team at Boston Partners. She works with many of our key domestic and international clients in a client service and relationship manager capacity. Prior to joining Boston Partners in 2016, she was a business development associate at Geode Capital Management.

Elizabeth Sheerin

Relationship Manager

Ms. Sheerin holds a B.S. degree in business management from Babson College. Ms. Sheerin has thirteen years of industry experience

Ms. Sheerin is a member of the Relationship Management team at Boston Partners and she joined this team in 2011.  She works with many of our key domestic and international clients in a client service and relationship manager capacity. Prior to joining our firm, she was a Client Service Representative at Putnam Investments. She also held several financial services related internships including working for Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and State Street Global Advisors.

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