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Portfolio update September 2026

Asian tourism, smart locks and Philippine IPOs

Michael Fritzell

Michael Fritzell

— 23 min read
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Portfolio update September 2026

Hi! Welcome to a subscriber-only edition of Asian Century Stocks – a newsletter about Asian value stocks. For a complete list of all previous posts, check out the Table of Contents.

Disclaimer: This article reflects my own views. I am Michael Fritzell, and I write Asian Century Stocks. I am not a licensed financial adviser, and Delante Media Pte Ltd is not licensed or regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to provide financial advisory services. This is not investment advice and does not recommend buying or selling any security. Nothing here takes account of your objectives, financial situation or particular needs. Please do your own research and consult a licensed financial adviser before acting. As of 30 September 2026 — the cut-off date used in this update — I personally held the positions disclosed below, in the sizes shown. After the cut-off, I bought shares in Photosynth (4379 JP), which I held at publication at approximately 4% of the portfolio. Other than those positions, I hold no position in any other company, fund, index, or instrument named anywhere in this post. I may buy or sell any security named in this post at any time after publication and will disclose those trades, with dates, in the next portfolio update. I do not trade a security within seven days of publishing a deep-dive on it. Position sizes are disclosed so you can see my conflicts of interest. They are not a model portfolio, an allocation recommendation, or a suggestion that any allocation is suitable for you. Performance figures in this post are historical, unaudited and self-reported. Past performance is not indicative of future results. My only compensation for this newsletter is reader subscriptions. I receive no payment, in cash or in kind, from any company, fund, broker, platform, publication or individual named in this post. People I quote, interview or cite may hold positions in the securities they discuss and may sell research products of their own. I have not verified their positions or claims. Asian Century Stocks is published by Delante Media Pte Ltd, which acts as publisher of record only.

The portfolio declined by -1.4% month-on-month in September 2026, measured in US Dollar terms. Since inception in October 2021, the portfolio's value has increased by +97.0%, equivalent to a +14.6% compound annual growth rate:

The primary culprit was a decline in Japanese accounting software firm Freee after its post-August 2026 share price squeeze. Luckily, I sold most of my position at higher levels. But the stock's volatility has been astonishing.

Meanwhile, Korean credit bureau NICE Information Service has continued to creep higher, perhaps thanks to a nascent recovery in Korea's housing market. I found this chart via Global Property Guide: early 2026 housing transactions rose by +22%:

Perhaps that's why we're now seeing insider buying in both Hyundai Elevator and furniture contractor Hanssem.

I'm also noting that, according to Smart Insider, the insider buying in South Korean equities remains extremely lopsided: 5x as much buying as selling. The theme seems to be rising dividend payout ratios, 2027 treasury share cancellations and, for some companies, a gradually improving job market.

I enjoyed Ian Bezek's book review of Alex Gurevich's The Perfect Trade. I wasn't as impressed by the book. But I agree with Ian that long-term US government bonds seem relatively attractive compared to equities. The September issue of Bank of America's Global Fund Manager Survey confirms general bearishness about government bonds:

Source: Bank of America Global Fund Manager Survey

This comes as the S&P 500 dividend yield has reached an all-time low of just 1.1%. This puts the 10-year UST yield of 5.3% into perspective.

Source: MacroMicro

In this neck of the woods, Japan's 10-year bond has hit 3.1% and is now above that nation's year-on-year broad money supply growth of 2.0%.

Source: Trading View

I'm not saying it's attractive, but it's certainly more attractive than five years ago. Some readers are now considering the possibility that the Japanese Yen might one day appreciate. If the yen were to appreciate, importers like Nitori and Seria would be among the direct beneficiaries, along with leveraged Hong Kong property owners like Link REIT.

A big theme that's been on my mind over the past month is the rise in oil prices. I can tell that investors are visibly worried about inflation pressures in emerging markets. And many travel stocks have sold off, from Trip.com to MakeMyTrip. At the same time, I've been positively surprised by Chinese tourism to Southeast Asia. Stocks like Samart Aviation directly benefit from these flows.

Another theme that's been on my mind is the impact of GLP-1 drugs. Meera Kapoor wrote a post for ACS discussing GLP-1 drug usage in Asia. It's still at very low levels, but generics variants seem to be catching on in India. Oral formulations will further popularize the drug. This led me to write about the Korean botox maker Hugel, whose dermal fillers are used to treat what's now become known as Ozempic face (no position yet).

And finally, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about hidden champions in Indonesia. The market is so hated that my contrarian side feels compelled to dig deeper. My conclusion is that Indonesian politics are indeed a shit-show. But within the market, I argue that consumer companies will be mostly left to their own devices. Among the hidden-champion stocks I identified were glove manufacturing mold maker Mark Dynamics and Cinema XXI. More on those later.

The portfolio as at 30 September 2026 is set out below, along with this month's transactions. This is a disclosure, not a model portfolio and not a suggestion to buy or sell stocks.

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