Borrowing ideas from funds, part 6

Estimated reading time: 19 minutes

Here’s yet another edition of my reviews of the key holdings of Asia-focused funds.

I will release new editions as time progresses.

Summary

• I love VARECS Partners’ strategy of focusing on companies dominating their niches. The stock that intrigues me the most is the online auction platform Aucnet. The stock trades at a P/E of 8.5x and EV/EBIT of 2.5x. For reference, Thailand’s Union Auction trades at 20.5x and Copart at 30.0x.

• Forager Funds seem to like niche software businesses. In any case, New Zealand’s Tourism Holdings fits into my personal positive view of Asian tourism. The stock trades at a consensus 2024e P/E of 11.6x, which does seem low.

• Airlie Funds proclaims to have a value-focused strategy. But neither of their top positions trade at particularly low multiples. I suppose Tabcorp trades at an EV/Sales of 0.8x. I covered the stock in this prior deep dive here.

• VinaCapital’s Vietnam Opportunity Fund is publicly traded and seems to give exposure to companies with high margins an…