One of Asia's largest asset managers recommends a high-growth approach to stock-picking.
"We are now recommending that you try to find fast lanes within the slow-moving traffic," Takumi Shibata, president and CEO of Tokyo-headquartered Nikko Asset Management, said on the sidelines of the , an annual gathering of Asian business leaders.
"So for instance, we've raised about $6 billion in global robotics, with the idea being that what you see in global robotics now could be interpreted as an industrial portfolio 10 years later."
Nikko is the creator of the Global Robotics Equity Fund, the first of its kind in Japan to focus on cross-sectoral robotics firms. The fund attracted over 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion) in inflows within three months of its August 2015 launch amid strong domestic demand, according to the company.
As asset managers, "we need to think of the different types of institutions and investors, such as pension funds or individuals on the street," Shibata said.
For , mortgage securities in Australia and New Zealand posed good opportunities as diversifiers, he added.
As of June 30, Nikko Asset Management has $184.1 billion total assets under management, according to the firm.