Sohn: Howard Marks says Trump will come out swinging on China

The country’s biggest stock-picking conference, Sohn Hearts & Minds, is on in Adelaide, with major local and international fund managers pitching their ideas for the year’s best investment opportunities. An annual event, Sohn is closely watched by fund managers and investors for clues on what stocks and themes they should be tracking.

On Friday morning, IFM Investors’ Rikki Bannan picked Corporate Travel Management, a battered corporate travel services stock that she said shook investor faith by missing profit expectations three times. But the sector is now stabilising.

Sumit Gautam, the Dallas-based manager of hedge fund Scalar Capital, has pitched Nasdaq-listed back-office software stock BlackLine Systems. He says there is an 85 per cent upside as earnings accelerate, describing it as a very high-quality company.

Wearing a white lab coat, Ellerston Capital’s Chris Kourtis named Perpetual as his pick, saying the “patient” was suffering from a “severe case of shareholder wealth destruction”.

J O Hambro’s Samir Mehta pitched Tencent Music, a Chinese streaming service that is returning cash to shareholders at the same time as growing its earnings.

Making her first appearance at the conference, Fleur Wright of Northcape Capital picked Estee Lauder as her stock pick, saying “beauty is big business”. The shares have slumped more than 50 per cent this year.

Next on the line-up was Jeremy Bond, co-founder of Sydney global resources fund Terra Capital. He pitched New York-listed silver miner Coeur Mining, saying a silver bull market is underway.

Across the pond, Antipodes Partners Vihari Ross pitched French plane manufacturer Airbus, citing its leadership in short-haul travel. She said the company’s “turbulent” journey had also created an opportunity.

Among the US fund managers, Jordan Katz, partner at Advent Global Opportunities, selected aerospace manufacturing company TransDigm Group. He took to the stage holding one of the company’s seatbelts, citing high demand for its product from clients like Airbus and Boeing.

New York-based hedge fund manager Ricky Sandler from Eminence Capital returned to the conference via video link. He named Spanish telecommunications operator Cellnex, likening its 10,000-odd cell tower assets to perpetual bonds.

Alex Pollak of Sydney disrupter fund Loftus Peak named weight-loss drug manufacturer Eli Lilly, despite the stock more than doubling on an explosion in demand for GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic in the last 18 months.

Wrapping up the event, Beeneet Kothari made his fifth Sohn Hearts & Minds pitch, and it was so edgy that he had to “obtain an exemption as it still trades on a non-major stock exchange”. The stock is Didi, the out of favour Chinese ride-sharing app, which he says is worth a punt.