Australia is one of the richest countries in the world. However, diversification is not utilised by a lot of Australian investors. Most people have a lot of their wealth tied up in one or a handful of properties plus bank shares. Arguably, the bank shares are also heavily linked to the property market.
Therefore, I think it's very important for every investor to diversify away from these two areas.
Here are three ideas to do that:
Magellan Global Trust (ASX: MGG)
This is a listed investment trust (LIT) that aims to give investors exposure to some of the highest quality businesses in the world like Alphabet (Google), Facebook, Visa and MasterCard.
Magellan has a track record of beating the market consistently whilst also providing downside protection. The Magellan Global Trust has outperformed its benchmark after fees since inception.
Many Aussie investors have too much of their portfolio weighted to Australia, so this LIT could be a good way to provide that diversification away from the domestic market.
It's currently trading at a slight discount to its net asset value (NAV) and aims to pay a distribution yield of 4%.
MNF Group Ltd (ASX: MNF)
MNF Group provides voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services to a variety of customers including government as well as commercial clients such as Uber and Skype.
The business has been growing organically impressively for a number of years, yet the plan to diversify earnings with over-50 brand Pennytel has gone down like a lead balloon with investors.
Whether Pennytel is successful or not, the rest of the MNF business is going well and it's trading at around 27x management's estimated FY18 organic earnings. Cheap voice services will likely continue to become more popular.
Apiam Animal Health Ltd (ASX: AHX)
Apiam is a veterinary business that is located in the regional areas of Australia. It is benefiting from the growing livestock sector and it is also opening vet clinics inside regional Petstocks, such as Bendigo, which should allow for good referrals.
The company recently reported that it had achieved year to date organic growth of 4.3% and group revenue growth of 8.9% to the end of May 2018. It also said that the underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin is expected to increase as well.
Apiam is trading at around 10x FY19's estimated earnings.
Foolish takeaway
I believe all three shares look like good opportunities at the current prices. Apiam is clearly the cheapest, but the current drought issues may have an impact on livestock-related earnings in the near future. Magellan has proven to be a sound global fund operator, so I would be happy to buy shares today.
