Hong Kong-headquartered holding company Jardine Matheson (LSE:JAR, Financial) controls a diversified collection of business franchises predominantly across Greater China and Southeast Asia. Significant headwinds in certain parts of Jardine’s empire continued to hurt the company in the second quarter despite the global equity market rebound. The company is heavily exposed to Hong Kong real estate, which has been under pressure from China’s ongoing efforts to exert greater control over the territory and the anti-government protests that have come in response. Further, demand impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic continue to hobble its Indonesia-based Astra business as well as its Mandarin Oriental hotel chain. We view the company as having a solid balance sheet and attractive franchises, and we continue to believe the stock offers attractive value.
From First Eagle Investment (Trades, Portfolio)'s Global Value Team second-quarter 2020 commentary.
