Asymmetric returns: Quality businesses can be a sanctuary in uncertain times

William Ball, senior equity analyst at Sanlam Private Wealth, discusses the advantage of underappreciated companies during times of market uncertainty.

The 2008-2009 global recession is a distant memory in investors' minds, yet markets have had their fair share of macro economic scares since. These range from the slowdown in China and the conflict in Ukraine to more recent events with Brexit. We concede that we had no special edge in predicting the outcome of the UK referendum or what the broader longer-term implications are. As global investors, our attention was not on the outcome of the "vote", but instead on the potential impact on the individual companies we own or would like to invest in. Global equity markets were certainly ta...