Posts Categorized: Healthcare

The health care sector historically has been a relatively fertile ground for merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. So far this year, many signs point to a potential increase in the pace of health care M&A

MSCI announced in June that it will add a small (0.7%) weighting in China’s A-shares to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and the MSCI ACWI Index in two installments in May and August 2018. The decision is an important positive for China’s capital markets (particularly given MSCI’s prior rejections), but we greeted the news with a yawn. We have had access to A-shares through the Shanghai Connect and Shenzhen Connect, but haven’t invested through them. Like other investors, we’re wary of the government’s heavy-handedness and issuers’ ability to halt trading in their securities for extended periods of time

One aspect of our work that we’ve come to appreciate is evaluating corporate governance and assessing the boards of directors of potential investments. We don’t profess to be a leading expert on corporate governance, but have found this work to be helpful as a screening tool. The overarching issue is that corporate governance standards in most emerging markets aren’t as high as those in the US. In addition, there are many cases where a founder (or family) has a majority stake. Also, the expertise and experience of board members should align with the company’s strategy. Most of this discussion applies globally and this post focuses on our experiences