Mr. Szocs: Concorde Asset Management is the subsidiary of Concorde Securities, which provides institutional, retail brokerage and corporate finance services. Concorde Asset Management is one of the two independent asset managements that are operating in Hungary. We manage the assets of pension funds, insurance companies, high-wealth, private individuals, and we have more than 20 mutual funds. The assets under management exceed 1 billion. Our portfolio management team follows a "Buffet-like" investment philosophy, having an active fundamental approach and long-term horizon. We are mainly focusing with our investments on the Central/Eastern Europe region, but we are continuously endeavoring to expand the investment horizon to a global scale. Our classical, Swiss-style private wealth management providing for high-wealth individuals is our quickest-growing segment, with AUM exceeding one-third of the total.
TWST: What are your coverage areas?
Mr. Szocs: As an equity portfolio manager, my coverage area is quite widely focusing on the energy and commodity universe. I concentrate on the oil and gas sector, both upstream and downstream. From the upstream, I cover the U.S. companies like Conoco and Central/Eastern European-based ones, like OMV or MOL (MOL.BDP). In the downstream segment, I also try to have a global grip. I track U.S. refiners Tesoro, Valero, and Western and Eastern European refineries Petroplus (PPHN.VX), PKN, Tupras (TUPRS.IS). I also deal with the CEE metals and mining sector, mainly copper and coal. Last but not least, the European power utilities CEZ and RWE also belong to my area. As in most cases, the underlying commodity is the number one, and I put large emphasis on the analysis of the commodity fundamentals oil, natural gas, coal, electricity, copper, etc. I believe gold provides a promising investment and a good diversification opportunity with its inflation hedging, and safe heaven identity. It is in the spotlight, too.
Tickers included in this excerpt: BAACEZ.PR, COP, OMV, RWEOY.PK, TOT, TSO, VLO
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