An Asia fund manager whose investments in China shares helped her beat 99% of her peers over five years is becoming less enthusiastic about the world's second-largest economy and turning instead to its neighbor Japan.
Midas International Asset Management is betting on Japanese technology firms and companies bolstered by the economy’s reopening and the potential for increased consumer spending, according to Julia Yoo, a Seoul-based co-manager of the firm’s Asia Leaders Growth fund. Rising wages in Japan will likely boost consumption while a weakening yen may help draw in more tourists from abroad, she said.
The South Korean fund had been bullish on China until earlier this year, but it has shifted its views because of sluggish consumer spending and insufficient policy support that are making the country take longer than expected to recover, Yoo said.