Allocation

As unlikely as it seems, and despite the recent isolationist rhetoric of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, the 2018 Winter Olympics could witness the first steps towards the reunification of the Korean peninsula. Rivalled only by the coming together of East and West Germany in the 1990s, reunification would be a historic political event.

In the Netherlands, the moderates hold on to power. Then came the election of French President Emmanuel Macron and the decisive victory of his newly founded movement, La République en Marche, in the French general elections.

A record one-month jump in net % of investors indicating they have taken out protection against a sharp fall in equity markets in the next 3 months, at net -30% in February from net -50% in January

We remain constructive for equities, due to the synchronized global recovery, which we expect to underpin strong earnings growth. Given that until recently, investor sentiment was near record highs, we think that some sort of correction was indeed overdue.

Arnout van Rijn and Victoria Mio attribute the success of their flagship equity strategies to opening an office in Hong Kong in 2008, enabling local access to the companies in which they invest. They previously managed the strategies as part of the emerging market equities team in Rotterdam.