Winters On How To Tap Into EM Growth, And Limit European Risk

Top fund manager David Winters says he’s finding value in Western companies with exposure to emerging markets, the type of companies that have helped his Wintergreen fund produce strong returns over the past few years.

“We continue to see well-run companies with meaningful exposure to the growing markets of Asia, South America, and Africa selling for attractive valuations,” Winters tells Morningstar.com. “Many of these companies are based in Western countries with Western-style management and well-established rule of law and accounting standards, but they derive a meaningful amount of business from the growing economies of the developing world.”

Winters says that strong growth in domestic consumption has made emerging market nations like China less susceptible to problems in Europe and the U.S. “Consumerism should allow these economies to have satisfying rates of growth even if Western economies face more difficult economic prospects.”

Winters also talks about why he’s leery of technology and communications sector firms. And he says that he’s limiting his exposure to the eurozone debt crisis by focusing his European stock investments in global firms that are domiciled in Switzerland. “Switzerland has an independent currency and will not be directly involved with the EU debt crisis,” he says. “Switzerland’s economy and many of its constituent global businesses are doing very well.”