Pzena’s Allison Fisch on the areas of the market that are screaming value today

Please note: this interview was filmed on Thursday, 13th November 2025.

For all the noise about dispersion, geopolitics and AI, the most important developments in emerging markets aren’t happening in the headlines; they’re happening where few investors are looking.

Beneath the surface sits a market full of mispriced, overlooked opportunities. That’s the vantage point Allison Fisch of Pzena Investment Management offered in our recent conversation.

Fisch’s route into investing is anything but typical. With a background in psychology and drama, followed by a stint at McKinsey, she arrived at Pzena “by happy accident,” but found a home in the granular, company-by-company world of fundamental value. And she still believes this is the best lens through which to understand the opportunity set today.

What really anchored our conversation was her candid reflection on where value is hiding in today's volatile market. In her words:

“We're investing in the parts of the market that have been left for dead, and that's what we do over and over again every day.”

It’s a perspective that sets the stage for a very different take on EM, one rooted not in the “big country stories,” but in controversies, mispricings, and the cyclicality of industry fundamentals. From China to Korea to Brazil, Fisch argues the most compelling opportunities today are hiding in sectors and regions investors have stopped paying attention to.

In this interview, she detailed where valuations are “screaming,” which controversies create the richest opportunity set, and why unanimity within Pzena’s PM team is both a burden and a blessing. The full conversation paints a picture of an EM universe far more diverse, nuanced and investable than the headlines suggest.

INTERVIEW SUMMARY

How an unconventional path shaped an EM value investor

Fisch’s path into investing is unconventional, and she argues that it is enormously useful. With a background in psychology and drama at Dartmouth, followed by management consulting at McKinsey, she arrived in investment management almost by accident. 

But the combination became a strength: understanding people, motivations, and how organisations create value. At Pzena, that inclination toward deep problem-solving found its home. 

“The beauty of investment management… is you really get to understand businesses and analyse how they create value, which is an incredibly fun job.”

She helped launch Pzena’s Emerging Markets Value strategy in 2008, a volatile year, but also one rich in opportunity. While global markets were disrupted, EM valuations became unusually attractive without the deep balance-sheet destruction seen elsewhere.

Finding "normal" in uneven EM cycles

Pzena is known for its strict focus on normalised earnings. But how does one define “normal” when EM cycles diverge wildly?

For Fisch, the answer lies in industry structure, not geography. The team is organised by industry groups, enabling analysts to determine what a company should earn in a mid-cycle, benign environment. 

“If a stock becomes cheap relative to that metric, it means something bad is happening.”

Through a global lens, this approach helps separate temporary disruption from structural impairment, a foundational distinction for value investors.

Why China, Korea and Brazil dominate the portfolio

Fisch doesn’t begin with country-level calls. Instead, Pzena starts with a screen that identifies the cheapest 20% of the universe and for years, that tool has “been screaming China.” As China has partially recovered, the opportunity set has broadened to include other cheap parts of the market, like Korea and controversy-laden Brazil.

“It’s all about what companies look interesting to buy relative to their own valuation.” 

AI winners hiding in value stocks

Samsung, Alibaba and Baidu all appear in the portfolio, not as growth stocks, but as mispriced cyclicals exposed to AI economics. 

Fisch highlighted Samsung’s long-term dominance in memory, despite recent stumbles. The AI capex boom is providing a lift, but she remains sceptical about whether industry-wide investment will be profitable. 

Still, dislocations create opportunity. 

“There are definitely pockets of misvaluation that we're taking advantage of in emerging markets.” 

B3, Wizz Air and the power of controversy

Recent additions to Pzena's portfolio, B3 (BVMF: B3SA3) and Wizz Air (LON: WIZZ) illustrate the range of opportunities in the cheapest parts of EM. While both companies are valued well below their mid-cycle earnings power, the controversies they are facing - both company-specific and more broadly contextual - are completely different. But those controversies drive opportunity. 

“At any given point in time, it's not hard to find a lot of different controversies… and that's what you can really take advantage of.” 

The discipline of unanimous PM approval

Every investment in Pzena’s emerging markets portfolio must secure unanimous approval from the PM team, a deliberately high bar given the depth of the opportunity set. As Fisch puts it, “having a unanimous PM sign off when you're looking at a PM team of three or four people is a pretty high bar.”

Despite the challenge, she emphasises the necessity of the standard. Each idea begins in a universe of roughly 1,000 stocks, which is then narrowed to the 200 cheapest before ultimately producing a 40–50-stock portfolio. That process makes selectivity essential.

The discipline matters because, as Fisch says, “the cheapest part of the market is full of great investment opportunities, but it's also full of every company that might fail.” 

The team’s requirement for absolute conviction helps ensure that only the highest-quality, highest-confidence ideas make it into the portfolio.

When asked if unanimity has ever cost them a winner or saved them from a loser, Fisch acknowledged that the standard can work in both directions, noting simply, “I would say both, to be frank.” However, she is clear that the rigour is critical; full alignment helps create a stronger filter against avoidable mistakes. 

Why overlooked markets could lead the next cycle

Fisch notes that Pzena's portfolio is concentrated in financials, consumer discretionary, and IT - highly cyclical sectors with big question marks about growth and profitability. Regionally, China, Korea, and Brazil remain their largest exposures, where Pzena sees opportunities that they believe the market is missing. 

In Fisch’s view, the most surprising successes in emerging markets will come from places investors have stopped looking.

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