Platinum Asset Management Ltd (ASX: PTM) has long been one of the most followed funds management businesses on the ASX. Platinum was founded by the legendary ASX investor Kerr Neilson in the 1990s.
Ever since, the company has been a beacon of value investing on the ASX, even after Neilson's departure in 2018. Now, Platinum is headed by its co-founder and Neilson protege Andrew Clifford.
Clifford recently sat down with Livewire for an interview. It makes for some interesting reading.
Discussing both Platinum's history, and its prediction for the winning investing themes of the future, Clifford shared three insights.
Firstly, he sees a very bright and potentially lucrative shift towards the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. Platinum identifies the Korean company LG Chem as a major play in this space. Mr Clifford calls the company "one of the world's leading suppliers of batteries".
Secondly, Clifford identifies an opportunity in the search for replacements for single-use plastics. Pointing to Finnish forestry company UPM Kymmene Oy, he says he is excited about this company's plans to turn timber products into bio-plastics.
Biotech shares for the future
But, thirdly, Clifford is looking to the biotech space for potential future gains. He predicts biotech will "kickstart a revolution in healthcare. Not only in the way we define and treat diseases but also in the way we manufacture products":
The speed at which we're coming up with potential solutions in the biotech world — whether it's gene editing or mRNA — there are vast amounts of development in different areas of the sector that I think will transform the healthcare landscape…
The great lesson of the last year was obviously the way that mRNA technology could be used to create vaccines. We had investments in both BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) and Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA) well ahead of COVID-19 and certainly stepped those up because we knew there would be an opportunity.
Clifford told Livewire that Dr Bianca Ogden, Platinum's International Health Care fund manager, frequently points out how "molecular biology and computer science are converging" with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
In the report, Clifford said Odgen "believes that in the next 10 years we will start defining neurological disorders by their molecular profile akin to what we do in oncology".
Exciting stuff.
The Motley Fool recently looked at some of the ASX's best-performing biotech shares over the 2021 financial year so make sure to check those out next.
