Munro Partners are one of Future Generation Global’s (ASX: FGG) and Future Generation Women’s leading pro bono fund managers.
Despite continued market volatility, global equities have bounced back. We caught up with Lead Portfolio Manager Qiao Ma to find out what’s driving performance, where she’s finding long-term winners, and why she’s backing one Arizona-based company to reshape public safety around the world.
It’s been another unpredictable period for markets. How has that shaped your recent performance – and what’s been driving returns?
Despite all the market volatility caused by trade policy headlines, May ended up being a strong month for global equities – and our portfolio benefited from that. Resilient consumer data, solid corporate earnings, and a big uptick in M&A and IPO activity helped lift sentiment. A temporary pause in trade tensions didn’t hurt either.
Curtiss-Wright (part of our Security Area of Interest) was our top contributor to performance for the month. They had a strong Q1 result, lifted guidance, and benefited from several nuclear-related announcements – including Trump’s executive order and an extension of the Nuclear IRA tax credit to 2031. As a service provider to nuclear plant builds and restarts, they’re well-positioned.
Another standout was CoreWeave (High Performance Computing), which soared after posting a stellar Q1 result, landing a USD4 billion deal with OpenAI, and securing a strategic investment from Nvidia. Interactive Brokers (Big Data) also helped performance, with trading volumes holding up well in the post-Liberation Day volatility.
With all the uncertainty out there, what’s your outlook for global markets?
We’re not in the business of trying to predict macro moves. Instead, we focus on structurally growing companies that we believe can keep delivering earnings growth regardless of the broader backdrop.
Many companies are still trading below pre-Liberation Day levels, which creates rare opportunities to buy quality growth businesses at a discount.
Talk us through your investment process. What gives you an edge right now?
At Munro, we’ve been refining our process for nearly two decades*. We think of the equity market as a world of few winners and many losers – and our goal is to consistently find those exceptional few. That’s where we believe our edge lies.
We aim to find businesses at the early stage of the “S-curve” – when earnings are just beginning to accelerate – and get in early on those with long growth runways. And if we get one wrong, our proprietary stop-loss process helps us exit quickly.
Can you share a stock you’re excited about right now?
Axon Enterprise is one we’re very excited about. It’s a founder-led company based in Scottsdale, Arizona, best known for its mission to make communities safer – starting with the development of the taser, which they credit with saving more than 300,000 lives from death or serious injury.
Since then, Axon has expanded into body cameras, dashcams, and now a high-margin, recurring software business that’s starting to take off. Their newest product, Draft One, uses body cam footage to automatically generate police reports – a task that previously took hours. Just three months post-launch, Draft One had built a $100 million revenue pipeline, the fastest in Axon’s history.
Today, Axon captures just 1% of US city budgets. But they’re tackling a USD129 billion addressable market, with only USD2 billion in current revenue. We believe there’s a multi-decade growth story here – and that the company’s innovation is only just beginning.
Finally, in addition to being a pro bono fund manager for FGG – which we are so grateful for – you’re also involved as a pro bono manager for Future Generation Women. Why is that important to you?
We’re deeply passionate about investing, and over the years, we’ve met some incredible female stock pickers. Investing is the ultimate meritocracy – your track record speaks louder than your gender. That’s why we believe there’s absolutely no reason bright, aspiring female investors shouldn’t thrive in this industry.
Future Generation Women aligns perfectly with that view. We want to encourage more women to join the profession and to inspire younger generations to think about money and investing earlier in life. If they can see it, they can believe it.
*Investment Process and track record pre-date Munro Partners’ inception.
