A panel of fund managers have given their tips on where to find pockets of value in the market — and what assets investors should avoid.
The cryptocurrency bitcoin soon popped up in the discussion.
“Frankly, we will never invest ever in cryptocurrencies … For us it’s very clear that bitcoin is a bubble,” Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, RDIF, told CNBC at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday.
“Frankly, in Russia lots of people want to invest in bitcoin but we believe it’s a bubble, while blockchain technology will definitely be relevant,” he said, adding that RDIF was looking at a couple of infrastructure investments that facilitate blockchain transactions but had not made a decision yet.
Dmitriev added that he supported investments in technology — but not cryptocurrencies in themselves.
“Definitely the technology sector is (an interesting sector for investment) and we see that technology — not only cryptocurrencies and blockchain which, frankly, I think there is too much time spent discussing those items — but technology like online health care or technology as big data for agriculture, technologies that can be applied to big companies and create lots of value,” he said.
“We need to be much more aggressive and active than before. Previously, the sovereign wealth funds just outsourced decision-making and just collected the checks but for us we need to be much more active searching for this value and I believe technology and infrastructure are areas to focus on right now.”
