Company Reports

We expect Avita’s RECELL to pose a significant challenge to the standard of care for larger burns, currently a skin graft sourced from elsewhere on the patient’s body. We believe Avita will be successful based on the product’s clinical performance, ease of use and relative price point. RECELL creates Spray-on Skin within 30 minutes from a skin sample, typically less than 5% of the size required in a graft. It has been clinically demonstrated to heal the burn site as effectively as a skin graft without creating a large donor site wound.

Dexus is a diversified Australian REIT that generates income from charging rent; managing property for clients; funds management, which typically includes property management and investment management services; and development and trading.

With around 550 million monthly active users, Tencent Music Entertainment is the largest music streaming platform in China. The firm monetizes its services mainly through monthly subscriptions, livestreaming, and advertising.

BHP is the world’s largest miner by market capitalization. Its main operations span iron ore and copper, with smaller contributions from metallurgical coal, thermal coal, and nickel. The company is also developing its Jansen potash project in Canada. BHP merged its oil and gas assets with Woodside Energy in June 2022, vesting the Woodside shares it received to BHP shareholders, and exiting the sector. It purchased copper miner Oz Minerals in fiscal 2023.

As China rebalances away from infrastructure and construction-led growth, Anglo American is likely better positioned than most diversified peers. The company has greater exposure to consumption-oriented commodities like platinum and diamonds, which should enjoy better demand growth than investment-oriented commodities like iron ore and copper that prospered most in the past decade.

KDDI is Japan's second-largest telephone company, and Japan is one of our favorite wireless markets. In addition, the firm is now addressing most of our concerns regarding its long-term wireless strategy. Japan has three incumbent wireless operators, all of which have traditionally competed more on service and handset features than on price. Industry regulation in the country has been fairly benign, and the industry has traditionally successfully weathered threats to this competitive balance. In 2008, a fourth carrier, eMobile, entered the market, but it was acquired by SoftBank after only gaining about 3% share. This relatively benign competitive environment has allowed the industry to operate as an oligopoly, as evidenced by churn rates among the lowest in the world at less than 1% per month.

As a telecom and technology investment company, SoftBank Group represents a unique investment opportunity. The current portfolio is a mix of internet and technology investments with a stake in a developed-market mobile services business. Internet and artificial intelligence, or AI, are the two main themes likely to underpin most investments in the future. The company can invest in public and private markets both directly and through is Vision Funds that invest in mostly pre-IPO technology companies.

Starbucks is the largest specialty coffee chain in the world, generating $36 billion in sales during fiscal 2023. The firm’s attention to premium-quality coffee distinguishes it from chained competitors, alleviating pressure from quick-service peers and at-home consumption while underpinning substantially higher pricing for what has historically been a commoditized product. This positioning looks increasingly important to us moving forward, as vending, single-serve coffee machines, and quick-service restaurants continue to improve at the lower end of the market, and as China approaches a similarly tiered competitive equilibrium.

With over 1,400 affiliated retail locations across multiple different banners, no-moat Canadian Tire serves as one of Canada’s leading general merchandise retailers. The firm sells a wide assortment of goods spanning automotive parts, home furnishings, appliances, and home improvement items at its iconic namesake banner, which accounts for over 500 locations. Recent acquisitions of various sporting goods and apparel chains have further bolstered its footprint and given the firm an ingrained presence in Canadian communities.

Like peers, narrow-moat Kimberly-Clark has been inundated by a slew of challenges, including a tepid economic environment and elevated cost pressures. In this context, management has been forthright that its market share has lagged, and consumers are increasingly trading down to lower-priced options in select categories to preserve cash. We think this could prompt a step-up in promotions across its categories—now that industrywide supply/demand imbalances have largely been put to rest.

A decade-long transformation of Michigan's utility regulation and DTE Energy's business mix sets up the company for a long runway of growth investment opportunities. The clean energy transition is the cornerstone of this growth.

NOV is the fourth-largest diversified oilfield-services supplier after Schlumberger, Halliburton, and Baker Hughes. It competes with the Big Three in many end markets, but its significant presence in equipment manufacturing sets it apart. NOV is the largest original equipment manufacturer of rig systems for oilfield-services providers in both onshore and offshore markets. It's maintained majority market share for two decades, controlling over half the market.

Cogent provides internet and private network connections for enterprises, and it carries internet traffic for internet service providers, content producers, and other websites. Both businesses face challenges as technological advancements allow those functions to be performed at lower cost, but we think Cogent's strategy leaves it positioned to succeed.

Weatherford is one of the larger oilfield service firms in an otherwise hyper-fragmented industry. However, in terms of size, it remains some distance from the industry’s Big Three: Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, and Haliburton.

Tenaris is the largest provider of oil country tubular goods, the steel tubing used to construct oil and gas wells. It controls nearly half the global OCTG market, providing premium and nonpremium solutions for offshore and onshore applications.

The fruits of Clorox's work to put pronounced inflationary headwinds and supply chain angst to rest were sidelined as a cybersecurity breach in mid-August forced it to take some information technology systems (including ordering) offline. Although this initially strangled sales and profits, we don’t surmise the firm’s competitive edge has been eroded. On the contrary, we think its entrenched standing with retailers will continue to enable it to build back its shelf position, similar to its inventory revival coming out of the pandemic.

Expedia's migration to a unified platform during 2020-23, which shares data, supply and loyalty (OneKey) across its brands, versus having it in a siloed structure previously, stands to support its network advantage, the source of its narrow moat, and foster margin expansion opportunity. We think worker flexibility will increase long-term travel demand. We developed this positive stance because higher-income occupations (like those in technology, finance, legal, and architecture) are in industries that are the most likely to support ongoing work from remote locations.

Narrow-moat Hanesbrands is the market leader in basic innerwear (about 60% of sales) in multiple countries. We believe its key innerwear brands like Hanes and Bonds (in Australia) achieve premium pricing. While the firm faces challenges from inflation, slowing demand for apparel, higher interest rates, and a highly competitive athleisure market, we think Hanes' share leadership in replenishment apparel categories puts it in position for improving results in the coming years. In May 2021, the firm unveiled its Full Potential plan to expand Champion globally, bring growth back to innerwear, improve connections to consumers (through greater marketing and enhanced e-commerce, for example), and streamline its portfolio.

Covid's headwind on Wynn's Macao operations (51% of estimated 2024 EBITDA) eased greatly in 2023, after China removed restrictions Jan. 8, 2023. Still, the Macao government continues to heavily regulate VIP play, elevating long-term operational risk. Also, Wynn has exposure to the expected long-term shift away from VIP gaming revenue toward nongaming and mass play. That said, we see an attractive long-term growth opportunity in Macao, with Wynn's high-end iconic brand positioned to participate, leading to an estimated low-teen percentage gross gaming revenue share in 2024.

While inflation and credit market concerns present potential risks to Booking's near-term travel demand, we see the company exhibiting solid financial health and a stout network advantage. We expect Booking's global online travel agency leadership position to increase over the next decade, driven by a healthy position in the Asia-Pacific, continued leadership in Europe, and an expanding presence in vacation rentals, restaurant bookings, experiences, flights, and payments, all of which are backed by leading marketing and technology scale.