Our investment philosophy

Our Australian equities investment capability is the foundation on which Maple-Brown Abbott was initially established in 1984. We have successfully applied this process to our Asia Pacific investment capability since 2002. Our investment philosophy is based on the following key principles:

We are value investors

We believe stock valuations are driven by the financial performance of the underlying business. By always taking a long-term view, we can use periods of short-term pessimism to our advantage and buy good businesses at attractive prices.

We are bottom-up stock pickers

We use our in-depth internal research process to identify those good Australian companies that we believe offer the best long-term risk/return opportunity in the market.

We invest for the long-term

We look to hold a stock for at least four years, as we believe this allows the company’s true intrinsic value to be realised based on its underlying earnings, cash flows and dividends.

We are often contrarian

With share prices representing the market consensus, we will often move early and against the crowd to invest in undervalued companies that we believe will generate strong investment performance.

Asia Pacific equities
Investment philosophy and process


Our investment approach

As bottom-up stock pickers, we place a strong emphasis on fundamental company research. We start by using quantitative value screens to rank our Asia Pacific ex-Japan investment universe of around 900 companies from ‘cheap’ to ‘expensive’.

Our experienced team then conducts in-depth analysis and prepares estimates on companies, including meetings with company management. This research identifies those stocks that are currently trading at an attractive discount to their true underlying value. Each analyst then presents their investment thesis to our investment committee, along with their recommendation on why the stock should be included in our portfolios.

Every recommendation is supported by a detailed research report, expected four-year return and detailed valuation models forecasting the company’s future profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow statements.

If a stock is approved by our investment committee, it is then eligible to be included in client portfolios.

Our Asia Pacific ex-Japan equity portfolios are made up of those stocks in which our investment team has the highest conviction, subject to our formal risk guidelines. They generally hold between 35-60 stocks, with individual stock weightings not more than 5% above its benchmark weight.