Fund manager names lesser-known global technology stock
Investors should look beyond the so-called “Magnificent Seven” and identify “country winners” in tech outside the U.S., according to one hedge fund manager. Beeneet Kothari, CEO and principal portfolio manager at the U.S.-headquartered hedge fund Tekne Capital Management, said there are global tech stocks that also make good investments right now. “Our view is that there is a Magnificent Seven set of companies in each of the major economies in the world [which] you can buy for a fraction of the value,” he told CNBC Pro earlier this month. The Magnificent Seven stocks — Alphabet , Amazon , Apple , Meta Platforms , Microsoft , Nvidia and Tesla — have dominated investor interest in tech over recent years. Their popularity is reflected in their returns: the group is over 40% higher year-to-date, and more than 60% higher over the last 12 months. But Kothari, who manages around $1.2 billion in assets, said he is looking for tech companies “running the way you would expect a Silicon Valley company to be running.” “You want to find businesses that are focused on what’s happening with AI, that have … the right set of engineers to be able to develop semiconductor chips and so on,” he added. Kaspi Among the stocks Kothari is betting on is the Kazakhstan-headquartered fintech Kaspi . The payments and fintech marketplace operator is listed on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange and trades as an American Depository Receipt in the U.S. under the ticker KSPI . “They’re the largest fintech business in Kazakhstan and grows 25% a year,” he said of the $15-billion company. He said metrics he likes about the company include its strong profit, clean balance sheet, cheap valuation and the fact that it “makes money.” Kothari’s comments follow a 28% year-on-year jump in Kaspi’s revenue to 650 billion Kazakhstani tenge ($1.34 billion) in the third-quarter , on the back of strength in its payments platform and marketplace. Net income rose 18% to 275 billion Kazakhstani tenge. Looking ahead, the company is expecting stronger revenue across its platforms in its full-year results. Year-to-date, its shares are up around 25%. They currently trade around 11 times forward earnings, according to FactSet data. “We didn’t start off looking at Kazakhstan. But we found Kaspi which turned out to be the kind of business that would trade for 30-50 times earnings if it were in Silicon Valley,” Kothari said.
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