Investors should look to the unloved region of Europe for opportunities, according to fund manager Sean Peche, who said there are some “very attractively priced” companies in the region.
Europe has fallen out of favor, Ranmore Fund Management’s Peche told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro — and investors have been distracted by Donald Trump’s U.S. election win.
“At the same time as Europe’s been struggling you’ve had this Trump euphoria,” Peche said. “So everyone’s been rushing to invest in the U.S. … But running off to the latest, shiniest thing is not normally a good way to make money.”
Peche shrugged off investor concerns over France, which — along with Germany — has been in the throes of political turmoil in recent weeks. French President Emmanuel Macron named Francois Bayrou his new prime minister last week following the toppling of Michel Barnier’s government.
Macron called a snap election in June which delivered a result with no clear majority, sparking months of political chaos and gridlock.
But Peche remains unfazed. “Maybe the euro falls apart, it probably doesn’t. And the companies that we own are very attractively priced,” he added.
These stocks include French bank BNP Paribas — which he noted has grown book value (or net worth) consistently — and Dutch investment bank ABN Amro, which has a 10.2% dividend yield. “That’s very attractive,” Peche said.
Looking to the U.K., the fund manager said that “attractive” stocks such as Associated British Foods, which owns retail giant Primark, were also being ignored by investors.
“Primark is doing really well. It’s a nice, diversified business with [a] great management team. I’m not going to wake up tomorrow and find that the management team has done something stupid,” he said.
“They’re attractively priced. We’re getting a nice dividend. They’re buying back shares, but it’s out of favor because it’s a mid-cap and it’s listed in the U.K.”
Eyes on the toymaker
Peche is bullish on mid-cap firms on the other side of the Atlantic, such as U.S. toy giant Mattel.
With household brands such as Barbie and Hot Wheels under its umbrella, the toymaker has diversified beyond its core products.
Mattel’s management team has “turned the business around such that debt is now very manageable, and they’ve launched a $1 billion buyback,” Peche said.
The release of a new animated Barbie Netflix series in November and a second documentary series in September charting Mattel’s rise gives the toymaker — currently valued around $6.2 billion — “growth potential,” Peche said.
Mattel saw a sharp rise in Barbie toy purchases after the resounding success of the “Barbie” movie in 2023, the highest-grossing film of that year earning more than $1.4 billion worldwide. It has also produced toys for hit films such as “Moana” and “Wicked,” although the latter hit a snag and it was forced to pull its line of character dolls after a package misprint linked to a pornographic website.
In October, both Mattel and competitor Hasbro lowered their end-of-year guidance as toy sales slid during the third quarter. Mattel said it expects sales for the last three months of the year to be “comparable to slightly down” from its prior guidance update.