Capital at risk. All investments involve risk and investors may not get back the amount originally invested.

Investment Approach

At the heart of the strategy’s philosophy is the belief that the Japan small cap market is not efficiently priced due to the relative lack of coverage by asset managers. There are too many companies in the investible universe that are under-researched, with little or no coverage. Consequently, the small cap universe provides numerous opportunities for active managers to find mispriced stocks.

The portfolio manager has a disciplined investment style where he focuses on PER –price to earnings ratio-, which we believe is the most effective indicator in Japanese small cap market. We typically hold a stock until the market notices and corrects the undervaluation. We can be patient because our extensive company research ensures stability and strength of fundamentals of invested companies.

We believe that the manager is currently unrivalled in terms of the volume of company research he has conducted during his career. He has met a few thousand companies in his career and counting, and continues to meet around 900 companies in a year now, providing an enviable knowledge bank of insights into the small cap market.

 

Key Strengths

Unrivalled Access:
Small cap markets are sparsely covered by analysts – We pride ourselves on having a deep understanding of the companies through our extensive research process and volume of meetings to uncover attractive companies at deep discounts to their intrinsic value.

Extensive Track Record:
The award winning portfolio manager has almost 30 years’ experience investing in the Japanese equities small cap sector delivering strong outperformance since inception. The strategy has been recognised with a number of industry awards.

Hidden Gems:
The strategy aims to identify unloved and neglected companies, relying on our research driven, bottom-up stock picking approach to unearth companies with true earnings potential and exploit the opportunities that exist within the Japanese small cap market.

 

Why Japan Equity Small Cap Absolute Value?

Award-winning portfolio manager: Having managed the strategy since inception, Tatsuro Nigauri has received prizes from the R&I Fund Contest (2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015), as well as the Lipper Fund Awards Japan (2012 and 2013) and J Money Fund Awards (2016). As a result, Mr Nigauri is well known by companies’ management in the sector and they will often make him their first call when organising investor relations trips, helping to free up time for Mr Nigauri and his team.

Distinctive Value-biased investment approach: By adopting a distinctive Value-biased investment approach and focusing on extensive research gleaned over the course of over two decades of research into small-cap Japanese equities, Mr Nigauri is able to unearth companies with true earnings potential and exploit opportunities that exist within the niche Japanese small-cap market.

Local expertise and native Japanese equity portfolio managers: Direct and easy access to an often opaque Japanese market gives us the ability to navigate the idiosyncrasies of the small and micro-cap market. Given how crucial assessment of company management is in this area, we feel this gives us an advantage over our competitors

Strategy Inception Date
May 2004
Lead Manager
Tatsuro NIGAURI
Style
Value
Performance Target
No set target, aims for long-term capital appreciation
Reference Benchmark
Russell/Nomura Small Cap (with div), TOPIX (with div)
Pooled Strategy
Yes
Segregated Strategy
Yes
Holding Range
Circa 200 stocks
Tracking Error Range
Not Set
GIPS® Compliance
Yes
Nigauri 2.0

Tatsuro NIGAURI

Lead Portfolio Manager

Mr Nigauri joined Daiwa SB Investments in October 2002 and has over 30 years of investment experience. He originally joined Daiwa Institute of Research in 1991, beginning his career as a research analyst. Since 1995, Mr Nigauri has dedicated his research efforts to developing an expertise in small cap equities. He has met over 3,000 Japanese companies during his career as a result of his continuous work conducting 1-on-1 meetings with company management.
He obtained a BA degree in Economics (1990) from the University of Tokyo in Japan.


Award winning portfolio manager
Lipper Fund Awards Japan (2012, 2013),
J Money Fund Awards (2016), 
R&I Fund Contest (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2023, 2024)

______________________________

Source: SMDAM as at 1 July 2024
CMA: Certified Member Analyst of The Securities Analyst Association of Japan         
Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. (DSBI) merged with Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Company, Limited (SMAM) on 1 April 2019

Industry Experience 30+ years

Time in SMDAM 21+ years

Learn more

Explore the related fund

Small Cap Absolute Value Fund

Asset class Equity
ISIN LU1550201138
Currency GBP
NAV 228.68 as of 11/12/2024
NAV Last Month +0.2367
Last 12 month performance

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