Allison Fisch - Unlocking Value in Emerging Markets

Welcome back to Season 7!

From the move to Manhattanville to the new curriculum for the value investing program at The Heilbrunn Center, there have been many changes since we wrapped our last season at the end of 2021.

Outside of that, a lot has happened in the markets. We’ve seen significant drawdowns in some growth stocks, conversations are centered around inflation and stagflation, and the geopolitical situation is bleak after the atrocious Russian invasion of Ukraine.

For our upcoming episodes, we’re exploring different aspects of how to navigate these difficult times. Joining us today to discuss the international dimension of investing in this situation is our guest, Allison Fisch.

Allison is Principal and Portfolio Manager at one of the great names in value, Pzena Investment Management. Pzena was founded in 1995 by Richard Pzena as a value-oriented investment management company and now has more than $50 billion of assets under management. Allison joined Pzena in 2001 after starting her career as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company. She earned a B.A. summa cum laude in Psychology and a minor in Drama from Dartmouth College where she was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Psi Chi national honor societies.

In this episode, Allison and I discuss how starting in management consulting created a great foundation for her investing career, how she developed her investing philosophy, why she’s excited about opportunities for value in emerging markets, her approach to idea sourcing, risk management, and portfolio construction in emerging markets, and so much more!

Key Topics:

• Welcome Allison to the show (1:27)
• Where Allison’s interest in investment management started (2:46)
• The skills that often make management consultants great portfolio managers (4:01)
• Managing the transition from McKinsey to asset management (6:21)
• Being a generalist versus a specialist (8:39)
• How Allison developed her investment philosophy (11:27)
• Allison’s journey from analyst to co-portfolio manager at Pzena (12:55)
• Pzena’s idea sourcing strategy (15:52)
• Getting to the underlying value of businesses across geographies (17:39)
• Portfolio construction in emerging markets (21:49)
• Why value works better in emerging markets (27:27)
• How Allison thinks about policy and currency risk in emerging markets (30:52)
• Managing geopolitical risks in times of crisis (34:25)
• How to approach reentry into historically unstable markets (38:47)
• Integrating ESG into your investment philosophy (41:24)
• Huge opportunities for value investors (44:15)
• What Allison is reading right now (46:17)
• And much more!

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Pzena Investment Management

Thanks for Listening!

Be sure to subscribe on Apple, Google, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And feel free to drop us a line at valueinvesting@gsb.columbia.edu.

Follow the Heilbrunn Center on social media on Instagram, LinkedIn, and more!