Schroders European equities manager James Sym is considering buying a Greek bank and telecom company if the country’s knife-edge bailout negotiations prove successful.
Mr Sym, who runs the £458m Schroder European Alpha Income fund, said there is a “misperception” about Greece and when such a thing happens in the market that is “where you make money”.
Given the growing likelihood some form of deal will be reached between Greece and its European creditors - the European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund - the manager has been carrying out analysis of potential stocks he would buy.
The results of his research have brought to the fore a Greek bank and a telecom company as potential investments.
Tension around Greece is mounting as the country is in negotiations to secure a last minute deal to prevent it defaulting on its debts due at the end of the month. Yesterday, the European Central Bank raised the limit of the emergency liquidity assistance available to Greek banks to around €89bn (£63.1bn).
The manager added that from an “economic perspective” it is not true that Greece’s debt is unsustainable.
“If you look at all the numbers and add them up in a spreadsheet then you see that by 2040 Greece’s debt to GDP ratio would be between 60 to 70 per cent, better than Germany’s at the moment,” he said.
In general, Mr Sym said he is not overly concerned with Greece as he claimed, “in Europe there is always something to worry about and if you let that concern you, you would never invest in anything”.
In the past three years, the fund has strongly outperformed its sector, returning 88.4 per cent, while the IA Europe excluding UK sector has delivered an average return of 60.4 per cent, according to data from FE Analytics.
