Bestinvest says
Scott McGlashan is an experienced Japanese equity manager based in London. He does not have a significant style bias instead he focuses on stocks where he can see a catalyst for re-evaluation. McGlashan has consistently been one of the best performing managers in the sector and he had a particularly impressive period during the bull market of 2009. The manager has built up a long track record with consistent outperformance of the index.
The manager describes his style as active and bottom up in its approach. He follows neither a value nor growth philosophy taking the view that "value is a function of growth".
Mis-priced stocks are identified through a number of valuation methods, including Price to Earnings, Price to Book and Price to Cash flow ratios. The manager consistently emphasises the number of quality Japanese companies trading at a discount to book or even cash on the balance sheet. However this does not mean that the share price is likely to move. McGlashan therefore does require a catalyst for re-evaluation by the market, such as restructuring, corporate action or earnings surprise. If this is not apparent then it is likely that lowly valued companies will remain so.
The manager does not have an extensive resource base to draw upon and has to rely upon the many contacts he has made within the mid and small sized brokerages in Japan that he has developed over his lengthy career. McGlashan runs the fund with Ruth Nash who is effectively the co-manager of this product.