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Indonesia: Overlooked and unloved

Mike Sell, Alquity’s Head of Asian Investments, spent a week in Indonesia for his regular on-the-ground meetings with local companies. Mike had 16
meetings and 33 store visits in 3 cities with the goal of re-assessing the macroeconomic and business outlook ahead of Presidential elections in April, and to discover new potential ideas for the portfolios. As a result of the trip, followed by further desk-based analysis, we have already increased our weighting across our portfolios and expect to continue to do so.

Concluding thoughts

Indonesia has been largely ignored by investors despite the country’s sound inherent characteristics and its solid economic prospects. The country perfectly encapsulates our key investment themes of monetisable structural growth opportunities thanks to its young and steadily rising population, ongoing urbanisation and the roll-out of structural reforms. Reforms by President Jokowi’s government have already improved the country’s growth prospects. This has not been appreciated by markets, which is also proven by the fact that investors’ aggregate exposure to Indonesia is at historical lows. The re-election of Jokowi should result in capital flows targeting Indonesia again.

Consequently, we are of the view that the Indonesian market offers an attractive entry point from a risk-reward aspect, since there are some excellent companies, who sustainably benefit from the country’s structural domestic growth momentum. Such stories can be found in industries such as cement, consumer or financials. We have already increased the weighting across our funds and expect to continue to do so.