BC Partners Europe Chairman Nikos Stathopoulos discusses investment opportunities in sectors such as services that are "much more insulated" and immune to global tariffs and volatility.

Berlin

Donald Trump has signed an order to impose tariffs imports into the U.S. from countries including China, Mexico and Canada.

Global Tariffs

Nikos Stathopoulos, Chairman of BC Partners Europe, has outlined the firm's investment strategy, emphasizing a focus on sectors such as services, telecoms, and utilities. He notes that these industries are more insulated from global tariffs and external economic shocks compared to sectors like technology and manufacturing. Stathopoulos explains that BC Partners prioritizes companies with strong fundamentals, including high margins, robust cash generation, and growth momentum, rather than following momentum-driven trends.

He further highlights that over three-quarters of BC Partners' portfolio is invested in services, which are typically less exposed to tariffs due to their local nature and limited reliance on cross-border goods movement. According to Stathopoulos, this approach has proven effective, as the services sector has remained resilient in the face of recent external shocks.

BC Partners sees services 'more insulated' from tariffs

Time and time again, we're talking to these private market players in London and across Europe as well. And even in the States, we're saying, you go to defense, you go to AI, you go to infrastructure, the places where the sovereign players are investing the most. You're taking a different approach. Why? We're taking an approach that, ultimately, we look at what are fundamentals, characteristics of companies that we, as investors, and probably our investors, are looking for. And if you look at the fundamentals, you need downside-protected businesses who have high margins, high cash generation, and the growth momentum. They don't necessarily only need to be in AI. They don't need to be only in tech. These are, of course, very attractive industries. AI is impacting almost any industry that we look at today. But there are industries out there which are more insulated from tariffs, telecoms being one, utilities, services, as I was mentioning before, which, fundamentally, nothing has really changed in these industries. And they have all these characteristics of companies that we like. So we're taking an approach of investing in fundamentals, not momentum investing, that, frankly, was the case for some of the tech investments in the last few years, but flying companies from fundamentals. You make a key point there that financial services are insulated from the traditional hits on things like goods, tariffs, et cetera, and that kind of volatility. Some would argue that that's about to change, and that if you do see some sort of escalation between the United States and the EU, specifically, but also in other jurisdictions, services and that services deficit between the US and the EU could be targeted. Is that something that's factoring into your thinking? We do like services. More than three quarters of our portfolio is in services. Is the tariff exposed? No. These services are not tariff exposed. And that's the beauty of investing in services or mostly services sectors. They tend to be more local in many cases. They don't have the exposure. You don't produce goods. You don't export goods. You don't rely on other economies necessarily in order to impose certain tariffs. So we have been big fans of the services sector, being health care services, being telecom services, being in any other business services a lot, because they're much more insulated. You're much more in control of your own destiny. And we've seen now that this strategy actually is being rewarded because, again, the external shocks that I was mentioning before are not really impacting that sector.

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BC Partners sees services 'more insulated' from tariffs

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