Ahead of International Women’s Day (IWD) this weekend, we asked female portfolio managers how they are positioning their portfolios, and which themes, sectors and risks investors should be watching out for in the months ahead.
This feature is part of our coverage to mark International Women’s Day, which takes place on Sunday 8th March. Here on Wealth DFM, we’re highlighting not only at the gender gap when it comes to careers in the investment profession, but also when it comes to investing amongst the general public.
Charlotte Cuthbertson, co-manager of the MIGO Opportunities Trust, said:
“AI is undoubtedly transformative, but markets have become increasingly indiscriminate. We are seeing a ‘whack-a-mole’ effect, where entire sectors are marked down on perceived disruption while capital crowds into a narrow group of perceived winners.
“By contrast, real assets and alternative investment trusts remain structurally under-owned. After a decade of underinvestment, construction of new projects across infrastructure, housing, mining and energy is constrained just as governments prioritise domestic capacity and energy security. These assets generate durable, often inflation-linked cash flows, yet many trusts investing in them continue to trade at material discounts to NAV.
“We see particularly compelling opportunities in selective areas of the alternative universe, where dislocations between asset values and realisable prices, combined with rising M&A activity, create stronger re-rating potential. In segments such as private equity and infrastructure, discounts are often exacerbated by opaque valuations and limited pricing benchmarks. That makes discernment critical, as not every discount represents value.
“Returning alternative investment trusts to favour does not require blind faith; it requires engaged shareholders and boards willing to confront sometimes unpalatable but financially robust decisions.
“At MIGO, we combine disciplined financial analysis with constructive engagement, working alongside boards to drive decisive capital-allocation actions, whether through tender offers, asset disposals, refinancing or capital returns. As boards increasingly recognise engagement can strengthen governance rather than threaten it, confidence should gradually rebuild.”
Hilde Jenssen, co-portfolio manager of the Nordea 1 – Empower Europe Fund, said:
“As global power dynamics shift, Europe stands on the edge of a fundamental transformation. The recent fracturing of the longstanding global order exposed Europe’s external dependencies – such as US military support, Asian manufacturing, and Russian energy. However, Europe remains strong enough to stand on its own.
“While the transition to greater self-reliance will take most of a generation, Europe’s transformation has created a unique window of opportunity for investors to share in the multi-year growth of companies at the forefront of Europe’s efforts to secure energy resources, achieve industrial independence, and strengthen defence capacities.
“The defence pillar is understandably attracting increased investor attention today. With Europe facing constant and evolving pressures on its physical borders and digital networks, governments and authorities are responding with urgently needed defence and cybersecurity investment.
“Encouragingly, we are seeing greater cooperation among EU Member States, along with long-term strategies to develop European suppliers, scale critical technologies, and build stronger local ecosystems. This is about anchoring defence and cybersecurity capabilities within Europe and reducing dependence on external or less-trusted partners. This kind of structural shift creates a stable, recurring demand for companies operating in the space, as the transition is already underway and moving fast.
“We view defence and cybersecurity as a long-cycle opportunity, a chance for investors to align with a strategic theme that offers both resilience and growth potential over time. We have identified numerous companies essential to building, securing, and maintaining Europe’s strategic autonomy across both physical and digital domains.”
Lena Jacquelin, portfolio manager of the JSS Sustainable Equity – Green Planet fund, said:
“My current portfolio positioning is centred on the capital expenditure (CapEx) cycle, driven by industrial reshoring and AI-related power demand. This trend is translating into a sustained reallocation of capital toward the physical backbone of the economy. The most compelling opportunities are in the bottlenecks of the electrification value chain: power generation, grid infrastructure, energy storage, and efficiency.
“At the stock level, the focus is on companies where this infrastructure investment cycle is starting to translate into order-book visibility and forward earnings momentum. Siemens Energy is benefiting from capacity shortages in power-generation and grid equipment. CATL is leveraged for the rapid expansion of energy storage, which is becoming a central pillar of the power system. TSMC continues to capture the structural rise in power-efficient compute driven by AI and digital infrastructure.
“Meanwhile Coherent provides differentiated exposure to optical and photonic technologies that are critical for data centre architecture upgrades and industrial automation.
“In the coming months, the primary focus will be on the pace of data centre CapEx, continued grid investment, and energy-storage deployments. These factors will drive the next leg of earnings upgrades across the value chain.
“The main risks are linked to the ability of the supply chain and labour availability to keep pace with this acceleration in spending. This year should remain a stock picker’s environment, where identifying the companies with the strongest leverage in this CapEx cycle is the key source of alpha.”
Cristina Dyer, deputy portfolio manager of the Evenlode Global Equity fund, said:
“The Evenlode Global Equity portfolio looks for businesses with attractive financial characteristics that can compound cash flow steadily over time. A key part of our process is understanding how these attractive economic characteristics are achieved – through brand, network, or distribution advantages – to ensure they are sustainable.
“We’re also very cautious about paying peak cycle prices for what may prove to be transitory levels of growth. At this point, we are materially underweighting semiconductor names which have benefited from a super cycle of investment in data centre infrastructure.
“Recently, we have seen an indiscriminate de-rating of data businesses (names like RELX, Experian and LSEG), driven by fears that AI will make datasets easier to replicate. These firms own unique, critical data that is continuously updated (you wouldn’t plan a trip using last year’s weather forecast).
”We see very attractive opportunities within this high-quality group and have positioned the portfolio to benefit as sentiment normalises. We also favour idiosyncratic holdings like Hasbro, The New York Times or Lindt. At first glance, their industries may not appear structurally attractive, yet within them sit pockets of exceptional quality that are difficult to replicate by competitors.
“In a market that has rewarded capital profligacy over steady financial discipline, quality names have been out of favour for much of the past three years, this can’t persist indefinitely.
“We have seen similar dynamics across other holdings. Johnson & Johnson, after years of muted share price performance amid narrative concerns, is once again seeing consistent execution and growth recognised by the market. Over the long term, fundamentals ultimately prevail.”
Thuy Quynh Dang, portfolio manager of Cohen & Steers’ Global Listed Infrastructure fund, said:
“Global listed infrastructure offers a compelling investment opportunity through essential, hard to replicate, long-lived assets that deliver stable, inflation-linked cash flows and portfolio diversification – especially in today’s uncertain market environment.
“Infrastructure assets form the backbone systems that support essential services, enabling communities to function and economies to grow. Infrastructure’s performance drivers can be influenced by many factors – including government policy, regulation, macroeconomic conditions or investment requirements.
“We seek to maintain a generally balanced portfolio given the current market environment and the elevated level of geopolitical tension and markets volatility. As an asset class, infrastructure offers greater cash flow predictability compared to global equities thanks to regulation and long term contracts and typically outperforms in environments of negative surprise to economic growth and sticky inflation. Given the many global crosscurrents, we favour higher-quality businesses that we believe can perform relatively well in this challenging growth environment.
“As active investors, we are well-positioned to identify and capitalise on the diverse investment opportunities arising from macro uncertainty. For example, we believe growth in power demand is at a positive inflection point, driven by the electrification of the economy, needs for greater grid reliability and rapid data centre expansion. Electric and gas infrastructure will be critical to support this demand, presenting significant investment opportunities within the asset class.
“We are cautiously optimistic from an economic perspective, with monetary and fiscal policy expected to support the US economy through at least the first half of the year, while remaining vigilant regarding inflation risks. Given current market volatility, attractive valuations, and high private investor interest set the stage for potentially strong total returns from listed infrastructure.”
Jennifer Martin, portfolio specialist on the T. Rowe Price Global Focused Growth Equity Fund, said:
We believe global equities are undergoing an AI-driven regime change that breaks from the post-GFC global financial crisis playbook of low rates, financial repression, and ever-rising concentration in a narrow cohort of mega-cap tech and quality compounders.
Capital is rotating towards businesses with physical assets, pricing power, and direct exposure to AI and industrial buildout. Asset-light platforms and software models, once market leaders, are lagging. This appears to be more than a short-term rotation. It reflects scepticism about AI monetisation at the platform level, recognition that value is accruing first to the ‘picks and shovels’ of the AI cycle, and a reassessment of the premiums assigned to knowledge-based, asset-light business models.
We believe this late-cycle, value-over-growth, tangible-over-intangible regime will persist until either inflation expectations moderate substantially or asset-light sectors experience significant valuation capitulation that creates compelling relative value. In the interim, we continue to emphasise businesses with physical assets, exposure to infrastructure and industrial buildout, and the ability to generate cash flow in an environment where capital is expensive and growth is scarce. This is not the environment for beta or for story stocks. It is an environment that rewards fundamentals, cash generation, and assets you can see and touch.
