Tuesday, October 21, 2015—Jupiter Asset Management Ltd’s, Ben Surtees announced the company’s investment in Sands China Ltd. Ben Surtees is a money manager for Jupiter. He is based in London. The company oversees approximately $53 billion. The investment decision was to bet that Asian consumer demand would increase gambling revenue in the region. In 2011, Asia saw a sharp sell off of equity and Macau’s gaming market has not been progressing well with China’s crackdown on junket operators. Surtees invested in the Macau casino operator, as well as, Ace Hardware Indonesia TBK. The hardware store chain is the biggest in Southeast Asia’s economy right now.
These two purchases came after his investment in Tingyi, a noodlemaker in the Cayman Islands. The investment in Tingyi occurred in August. Surtees also added an investment in CPMC Holdings, which is a food-packaging manufacturer.
Surtees told media, “Markets did get very oversold during the summer on fears that the US Federal Reserve is going to raise rates. We’ve been adding to our positions.”
The latter comment was in regards to Jupiter Asian Fund’s performance. The company outperformed 94 per cent of its peer companies in October and 73 per cent last year, according to Bloomberg data.
Surtee stated there are plans to purchase more Sands China shares based on strong visitor traffic at the rest when he visited during Golden Week. Credit Suisse Group AG shows a 16 month downfall in revenues through September because of the anti-graft campaign. The high rollers are still wary of Macau, but mass-market gamblers have returned with a 2 per cent bump in the third quarter.
Surtrees stated, “A lot of the negatives are already in the price. Valuations have halved Sands’ balance sheet is fairly sound and the dividend payout ratio is high.”
The investment was backed by stock analysts who believe Macau is turning around.