InPerspective - Volume 2

In recent months, investors have sometimes resembled passengers on a fairground ghost train. Events along their route have been often ghoulish and unsettling, but the train on which they have ridden has remained on its tracks. In addition to mounting concerns about the prospects for the global economy, rising commodity and energy prices, sovereign indebtedness in the periphery of Europe, and the direction of monetary and fiscal policymaking across the world, there were a number of particular challenges in the first quarter of the year. Not least among these were unrest and conflict in the Middle East and North Africa, and the threats associated with Japan's 9.0-magnitude earthquake, and the devastating tsunami and nuclear accident which followed.

In this edition of inPerspective, we discuss our thoughts on nuclear power in the context of the crisis that has unfolded at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plants. We explain how our investments in utility-related companies are framed by our thematic approach, and how we conduct thorough analysis of the utilities sectors and companies to identify areas of associated investment risk and opportunity.