Asia ex-Japan
The biggest, fastest-growing economic bloc in the world. Historically cheap. Structurally underowned.
The Valuation Gap
Asian equities — China, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia — had been written off by global allocators for years. The 2021 Chinese tech crackdowns, zero-COVID, the property crisis, and the general narrative of "China uninvestable" drove a historic capital exodus from the region.
The result: one of the widest valuation gaps between occidental and oriental equities in modern history. Super cheap stocks in the fastest-growing region on earth. When assets are cheap for narrative reasons rather than fundamental ones, the setup is asymmetric.
China as the Regional Engine
The standard view is that you are betting on whether China succeeds or fails. That is too narrow. China is actively investing in the entire region around it — Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Cambodia. Infrastructure projects, manufacturing partnerships, supply chain integration. The playbook mirrors what the United States did in the 20th century: export capital, lock in relationships, develop the surrounding region.
Some of those countries will compound explosively over the next decade. LASI gives broad exposure to all of them, with China as the engine and Southeast Asia as the option value.
The Wealth Rotation Thesis
This is the deepest layer of the thesis: modern wealth is moving. In absolute terms, in demographic weight, in manufacturing capacity, in capital formation — the center of gravity of the global economy is shifting from the occidental world to the oriental one. This is not a quarterly rotation. It is a generational one.
25% of the portfolio. The largest single position. Sized to reflect conviction in a thesis that has decades to run.