Forget India: One portfolio manager bucks the trend, says another market offers ‘great value’

Published Tue, Sep 26 20237:13 PM EDT

Amala Balakrishner @in/amala-balakrishner @_amalabk

India's growth prospects have seen many investors and big-name banks turn bullish on the country, but portfolio manager Kamil Dimmich says he's steering clear. "We are probably in the minority in here [and] we don't mind being in the minority," Dimmich from North of South Capital told CNBC Pro Talks last week. Dimmich says India looks very expensive right now, even considering the fact that it has traditionally been priced higher than other emerging markets. "We accept that, but where we are today is, I will say, a bit of an extreme," he said. "It has come off a little bit since then in terms of valuations because there has been some growth, it has gone sideways. But at one point it was two standard deviation [points] above the normal kind of valuation [which], even for India standards is way, way above any other market out there." The South Asian giant has posted stellar economic growth recently, with GDP rising by 7.8% in the June quarter. It is touted to surpass Japan as the third largest economy by 2030, with its GDP projected to rise from $3.5 trillion in 2022 to $7.3 trillion by 2030, according to S & P Global . Even so, Dimmich says he is going to step back and "wait for a better opportunity." "It is all very well, if you see growth and growth prospects, but if you're already having to pay for that growth today ... you're not going to make any money, they will just have to grow into their already high valuation," he explained. Dimmich, who manages the $1.5 billion Pacific North of South Emerging Market All Cap Equity fund, said he is "always looking for great companies with strong cashflows that are not correctly reflected in the market." His focus is identifying undervalued stocks in emerging markets . 'Great value market' One country he is very bullish on is South Korea, which he calls a "great value market." Petrochemicals player LG Chem and bank KB Financial Group are among the Korean stocks in his top holdings. The former is moving into the production of battery materials for electric vehicles, while the latter is striving to be the " Samsung of finance," he said. The portfolio manager acknowledged that his love of the South Korean market is an interesting one. He said that despite many companies in the country having "very high profit margins," they often have very poor returns on equity. "When they generate these profits, they've historically used that money to buy stakes and other companies and unrelated businesses [which make for] unproductive investments. And so that has always led the Korean market to be quite cheap because people didn't have much faith," he said. Even so, he believes the market offers "crazy discounts where valuations are completely disconnected from reality." While some investors have concerns over how long such issues will persist, Dimmich believes they should be patient and think long-term. "You want to have some things like that in your portfolio that have the potential to do incredibly well at some point," he added.