Happy weekend! To state the exceedingly obvious, March was a rough month for Asian markets. My response, albeit unintentionally, was the old ‘head in the sand’ tactic, owing in part to a long-planned trip to walk the Nakasendō with some old friends. With time, that might actually prove to have been the right approach, but it still meant confronting a rather messy picture upon my return.

With much of the Asian region being net importers of energy, there are very real consequences from the war, in particular for the poorest countries, where households and governments have much less of a financial cushion. Any prolonged conflict means we are likely facing a triple whammy of power shortages, curtailed food production (given the disruption in fertiliser exports), and a strain on the livelihoods of migrant workers, who make up a large portion of the people living in many Gulf countries, and are an important source of remittances back to their home countries. 

Some analysts talk about this being Asia’s ‘Ukraine’ moment. Indeed, regardless of a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz (and taking into account damage to energy infrastructure in the Middle East), many countries will be forced to rethink their energy policies with respect to security of supply, mix, and level of inventories. Investment in energy capacity (e.g., renewables), the related infrastructure (e.g., storage, refining capacity) and defense will all come to the fore. Nuclear energy, in particular, should be a longer-term beneficiary, and close friends will no doubt rejoice that I can continue to wax lyrical about the prospects for this sector.

The current decade is proving to be a most tumultuous one. Resilience and diversification should be the primary objective for investors – as my wife reminds me, these are times to survive, not thrive. If all of the above sounds obvious, then good! I can certainly do a better job of not overthinking things; this short video about how the Gorillaz came up with the track for their hit song Clint Eastwood was an amusing reminder of that.

Anyway, moving on to this week’s reading links, which include Palliser Capital’s value enhancement plan for Ajinomoto, Costa Vayenas on the history of the Swiss Franc, Patrick Rial on the cultural nuances of investing in Japan, NTAsset’s Kenneth Ng on where he sees investment opportunities in Asia over the next five years, Horizon Kinetics on the recent passing of its founder Murray Stahl, a conversation with Keyrock’s Jonathan Shih, Will Thorndike’s talk at the Redeye Serial Acquirers Conference, and Lee Hsien Loong’s practitioner view of microeconomics in public policy.

• Business Wire: Palliser Capital publishes value enhancement plan for Ajinomoto.
• The Library of Mistakes: The Swiss Franc, 1798 to 2055 (with Costa Vayenas).
• Hosomichi Capital: The Culture Map.
• Kenneth Ng: The next five years in Asia – where I see the opportunities.
• Horizon Kinetics: In memory of Murray Stahl – a message from the board.
• Hedge Fund Alpha: Why Keyrock’s Jonathan Shih values doing your own homework and free optionality (login required).
• Outliers: Transcript of the Will Thorndike talk at the Redeye Serial Acquirers Conference.
• Lee Hsien Loong: “Microeconomics in Public Policy: A Practitioner’s View” (Mar 2026).

Finally, I will sign off with a recent photo from the Nakasendo trail (highly recommended for any readers who are planning a trip to Japan, feel free to reach out for itinerary details). There is nothing quite like being out in nature, and this trip was a reminder that I need to get out of the city more often.