2020: Seeking visibility amid uncertainty

Making up for lost ground

The Covid-19 crisis has provided unique challenges for investment managers as they attempt to grapple with a crisis unprecedented in nature, depth and speed.

The difficulty is compounded by the fact the companies themselves have very little visibility. Peter Winnick, CEO of ASML, the leading supplier to the semiconductor industry, said predicting the future is challenging and that the firm is "certainly not adding opinions". "We continue to look at the facts, day by day and act accordingly," he added. As portfolio managers we must also attempt to build what visibility we can around the facts. Forecasting 2020 accurately is a near impossible task, but that is not to say we are completely in the dark. For some companies, the nature of the...