Cellnex, the only Spanish technology company in Janus Henderson's portfolios

Richard Clode, manager of Janus Henderson: "The Spanish investor is naturally underweight in technology"

MADRID, 25 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Cellnex Telecom is the only Spanish technology company that is present in Janus Henderson's Global Technology Leaders and Sustainable Future Technologies funds, focused on companies that provide long-term capital growth and that offer technological solutions with a positive impact on the environment and society, respectively.

The Spanish company, like many other technology companies, is having a bad year and has lost around 40% of its value: from the more than 56 euros at which it was sold a year ago, it is now listed in the environment of the 32 euros.

In any case, it continues to be one of the favorites of international investors and the only Spanish technology company that many of them are betting on, such as Janus Henderson.

Currently, Edizione holds 8.532% of the shares, followed by GIC Private Limited and Lisson Grove Investment Private Limited, with 6.989% and 6.73% of the total, respectively. BlackRock, meanwhile, owns 5.028% of the shares.

The manager of the two Janus Henderson funds, Richard Clode, explained in an interview with Europa Press that there are not many technology companies in Spain compared to other regions, a problem that occurs throughout Europe, although it is an important market for the companies they hold.

In addition, Spanish investors have less exposure to certain sectors such as technology due to the sectoral distribution of their listed companies, with very few technology companies, so it is natural that they are underweight, as highlighted by Clode.

"You have to look at the local market, which is normally where most people have their exposure. How many technology companies are there in Spain? Not many. The Spanish investor is going to be, for the most part, invested in banks, telcos and 'utilities' (...). So, from the outset, it is very underweight in technology," he explained.

The technology sector has not had a good performance this year, with very significant crashes due to the rise in rates that the central banks have been implementing and that is being especially aggressive in the United States.

Faced with this situation, the manager has highlighted that the securities are much cheaper than before, and that neither the regulation nor the demographic trend is going to change, so the trend will continue to be hot in the coming years.

Thus, he believes that there will continue to be growth in the sector, but that it will slow down next year compared to the values ​​that have been recorded.

In Europe, the United Kingdom is the market with the greatest potential in technology, given that it is the headquarters of many of the multinationals in the sector. That means that there is a huge congregation of talent, which translates into ideas that can become other companies.

"The local market in Europe has a decent size, but it is much easier to scale companies in other countries such as the United States or China," explained Clode, although he recalled that some companies have succeeded, such as the French BeReal and Capgemini , among other.

For Clode, the biggest trend in technology is the cloud, which has been talked about for a while but has accelerated with the pandemic. "With a possible recession in sight, more and more companies are going to think about how to save money and what can give them more flexibility in a more uncertain world. The cloud can be the solution for both cases", he has pointed out.

Artificial intelligence is another of Clode's bets: in recent years it has become more 'mainstream', which has led to the distrust of many governments in terms of defense and national security.

The manager believes that all countries will eventually develop their own artificial intelligence infrastructure, companies that supply it and experts.

Regarding the metaverse, another of the trends that have sounded strong this last year, "it is too early" to even think about how it is going to evolve and Clode considers that it is necessary "to have more pieces of the puzzle".

Clode explained during the interview with Europa Press that some of the best-known technology companies that have experienced the most growth in recent years, the FAANG --Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google--, are not in his portfolio. sustainable technology background.

That's because their business doesn't align with what Janus Henderson considers sustainable. Clode has explained that rather than the way companies do things, Janus Henderson focuses on the 'what', that is, the activity.

For example, Apple makes money selling mobile phones, which is not sustainable per se: the selected companies must have at least 50% of their income linked to sustainability.