Citywire for Financial Professionals
Stay connected:

Citywire printed articles sponsored by:


View the article online at http://citywire.co.uk/money/article/a427991

Why Diageo? People won't stop drinking Johnnie Walker in a hurry say fund managers

Fund managers Roger Morley and Ben Kottler reveal why they stick to steady, 'boring' stocks like drinks giant Diageo and why they’re avoiding energy stocks, even though they look cheap.

‘The great luxury we are afforded is that we can take a long-term view. The market can become over concerned with short-term issues such as weak consumer data, but these things are transitory, we look through the near-term noise,’ said Morley.

Turning to emerging markets, the fund owns ‘a smattering of emerging market banks’ as they believe that as credit penetration grows in these countries they will begin to play a bigger role.

‘Our only issue on a stock by stock basis is that they are looking expensive,’ said Morley.

In terms of geographic breakdown the fund owns bank stocks in India and Brazil but stays clear of Chinese banks as the team believe they have ‘governance concerns’ and consider them to be a little expensive.

The fund also owns Standard Chartered bank which despite being UK listed is also an emerging market bank.

Over a three-year period the MFS Meridian Global Equity Fund has fallen by 7.76% compared with the 17.95% loss in the MSCI World index.

Sign in / register to view full article on one page

1 comment so far. Why not have your say?

Anonymous 1 needed this 'off the record'

Sep 07, 2010 at 12:54

The big multinational drinks companies will do well in the current environment. They can not just weather the storm but take out smaller players with ease, raise future barriers to entry and improve their long term margins once competition is dead.

report this

leave a comment

Please sign in here or register here to comment. It is free to register and only takes a minute or two.

Sorry, this link is not
quite ready yet