Insync Buys Nestle, Eyes Roche for Global Fund After Shares Sink
(Bloomberg) — Insync Funds Management, an Australian money manager, bought shares of Nestle SA after the Swiss central bank’s unexpected removal of its currency peg roiled equities.
Nestle slumped 13 percent in the two days following the Swiss National Bank’s decision to remove its trading limit against the euro, dragging valuations on the world’s biggest food company to a 10-month low. Nestle makes up 22 percent of Switzerland’s benchmark stock index.
“We like to take advantage when we see sharp moves in stocks because of the perceived risks that the market might take as extremely bearish,” Nitesh Patel, Sydney-based portfolio manager for Insync Funds Management’s Global Titans Fund, said in a phone interview Tuesday. “We’re long-term investors and are in it for three to seven years or maybe more. Nestle can still continue to increase their returns.”
Patel said he’s also considering buying stock of drugmaker Roche Holding AG after a 13 percent two-day tumble. His un- hedged global share fund has returned 11.5 percent a year over the past five years, beating its benchmark MSCI World ex- Australia Total Return Index.
It counts Walt Disney Co., Oracle Corp. and drugmaker Sanofi among its largest holdings, with health-care and consumer discretionary shares comprising almost half of the fund.
The SNB sent shock waves through currency and equity markets on Jan. 15 by announcing it was abandoning its three- year-old cap of 1.20 per euro on the franc. The Swiss Market Index of shares trading on Geneva, Zurich and Basle exchanges slumped 8.7 percent that day, the most since 1989.
Nestle, which Patel has held since his fund began on Oct. 7, 2009, gained 54 percent over that period through yesterday, compared with a 50 percent increase on the MSCI World Index. The company traded for 18.4 times estimated earnings on Jan. 16, the lowest since March, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“When stocks overshoot on the downside we like to take advantage,” said Patel. “We invest in companies that have a long runway to success and Nestle certainly fits in that.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Haigh in Sydney at ahaigh1@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sarah McDonald at smcdonald23@bloomberg.net John McCluskey
