Juan Torres on emerging market value investing, China, Indonesia and Taiwan | S08 E06
February 19, 2026 · 1 h
🎙️ Full episode
DEBRIEFWritten and voiced by AI from the episode's audio
This episode of Value After Hours features Tobias Carlisle and Jake Taylor in conversation with Juan Torres, co-Portfolio Manager of Emerging Market Equities at Neuberger Berman. The discussion covers the current state of emerging market (EM) valuations, investment philosophy, and country-specific opportunities and risks. Juan shares that while EM as a whole has re-rated from very cheap to roughly fair value after a ~35% benchmark return in 2025, the cheapest quintile (CAPE ~9-9.5x) remains highly attractive and rich with opportunity across countries like China, Indonesia, Brazil, and Colombia. He contrasts this with expensive markets like Taiwan (CAPE ~32x, driven heavily by TSMC at 65x CAPE) and India (~35-36x). The conversation explores Juan's value-first, macro-aware (but not macro-led) investment process at Neuberger Berman, which screens for the cheapest quintile of EM stocks and uses a country/sector heat map to identify mispriced assets. He discusses the nuances of investing in state-owned enterprises, accounting quality, currency risk management, and the behavioral/cognitive challenges of value investing in a decade-long growth-dominated market. Jake Taylor's 'veggies' segment draws a compelling behavioral psychology parallel — using Dickinson's rat experiments on habitual vs. goal-directed behavior — to explain why 'buy the dip' has become a dangerous reflex for a generation of investors conditioned by post-GFC monetary policy. The episode concludes with discussion on why EM has begun attracting more attention, the cognitive dissonance of investors who call China uninvestable while being heavily overweight Taiwan, and the structural characteristics (concentration in banks, telcos, and materials) that define most EM country indexes.
🎧 AI Debrief
Show notes
Value: After Hours is a podcast about value investing, Fintwit, and all things finance and investment by investors Tobias Carlisle, and Jake Taylor.
Soldier of Fortune: Warren Buffett, Sun Tzu and the Ancient Art of Risk-Taking (Kindle)
We are live every Tuesday at 1.30pm E / 10.30am P.
See our latest episodes at https://acquirersmultiple.com/podcast
About Jake
Jake's Twitter: https://twitter.com/farnamjake1
Jake's book: The Rebel Allocator https://amzn.to/2sgip3l
ABOUT THE PODCAST
Hi, I'm Tobias Carlisle. I launched The Acquirers Podcast to discuss the process of finding undervalued stocks, deep value investing, hedge funds, activism, buyouts, and special situations.We uncover the tactics and strategies for finding good investments, managing risk, dealing with bad luck, and maximizing success.
SEE LATEST EPISODES
https://acquirersmultiple.com/podcast/
SEE OUR FREE DEEP VALUE STOCK SCREENER https://acquirersmultiple.com/screener/
FOLLOW TOBIAS
Website: https://acquirersmultiple.com/
Firm: https://acquirersfunds.com/
Twitter: ttps://twitter.com/Greenbackd
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobycarlisle
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tobiascarlisle
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tobias_carlisle
ABOUT TOBIAS CARLISLE
Tobias Carlisle is the founder of The Acquirer’s Multiple®, and Acquirers Funds®. He is best known as the author of the #1 new release in Amazon’s Business and Finance The Acquirer’s Multiple: How the Billionaire Contrarians of Deep Value Beat the Market, the Amazon best-sellers Deep Value: Why Activists Investors and Other Contrarians Battle for Control of Losing Corporations (2014) (https://amzn.to/2VwvAGF), Quantitative Value: A Practitioner’s Guide to Automating Intelligent Investment and Eliminating Behavioral Errors (2012) (https://amzn.to/2SDDxrN), and Concentrated Investing: Strategies of the World’s Greatest Concentrated Value Investors (2016) (https://amzn.to/2SEEjVn). He has extensive experience in investment management, business valuation, public company corporate governance, and corporate law.Prior to founding the forerunner to Acquirers Funds in 2010, Tobias was an analyst at an activist hedge fund, general counsel of a company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, and a corporate advisory lawyer. As a lawyer specializing in mergers and acquisitions he has advised on transactions across a variety of industries in the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Australia, Singapore, Bermuda, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Guam. He is a graduate of the University of Queensland in Australia with degrees in Law (2001) and Business (Management) (1999).