The companies winning the global E-commerce boom.
If you could go back in time and invest in Apple, Google, Netflix when they first became a publicly trading company wouldn’t you?
In my opinion, it’s an amazing time to watch how Internet and E-Commerce companies have begun developing and within Emerging Market economies. With 6 billion shoppers, it’s a good time to invest.
This remains much more than a quarter-to-quarter or even year-to-year story though, as low smartphone penetration rates in the Emerging Markets coupled with what we believe are strong fundamentals and attractive valuations offer further potential for Emerging Markets internet and ecommerce companies to see growth for potentially decades to come.
It is also my opinion that the growth of consumption in emerging markets represents a significant growth opportunity as more than one billion people are expected to enter the consumer class in the coming decades. In total, it’s six billion shoppers. Increasingly, these consumers are using smartphones and broadband mobile connections to access the internet. They are basically by-passing the brick and mortar stores or shopping malls.
There over 67 companies operating in Emerging and Frontier Markets including China, India, Brazil, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Turkey, Czech Republic, Poland and Colombia.
We believe with our focused strategy we have the ability to own the best and brightest companies for growth. There are many growing companies to invest in that focus on the Emerging Markets, Internet and E-commerce areas. One of those companies is the Multichoice Group.
Multichoice Group: Entertaining Africa
MultiChoice Group (MCG) is a leading African digital satellite and pay-television company delivering entertainment products and services to 15.1 million households across 50 countries across the African continent, according to its 2019 annual report.
MCG was spun out of South African media company Naspers (NPSNY) on 2/27/19 when it began trading on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Ecommerce companies, such as Alibaba and JD.com, have been prime beneficiaries of the expansion of the Singles Day sales event.
Alibaba’s Sets New Sales Record
Eleven years after Alibaba turned the holiday into a shopping extravaganza, replete with a televised, star-studded gala preceding the event and bargains galore, the company recorded record sales of $38.4 billion during the event, according to the company’s press release. That was a 26% increase over 2018’s sales figures, which were also record at the time.
JD.com’s Impressive Sales
Sales records were not confined to Alibaba. JD.com reported Singles Day sales of $29 billion, a nearly 28% increase over 2018’s numbers, according to its press release. However, JD’s numbers reflect sales from 11/1-11/11 as they typically mark the event by an eleven-day sales promotion.
Alibaba and JD.com are currently held in the Focused I.E. Emerging Markets Strategy as of 12/29/2019.
