She isn’t afraid to go against the investment herd, and she often has. When it opened in 2012, the fund took a particularly bold stance by buying Japanese stocks, at a time when such stocks were at the bottom of most buy lists. Bhansali had thought she’d unearthed some particularly compelling buys, and the move paid off over the following two years (when the world began to agree with her insight). Also in 2012, she sidestepped then-hot emerging market stocks because she felt their substantial risks were not priced into the securities. Again, subsequent performance proved her correct.

Her picks also reflect a contrarian bent. For example, she began accumulating Michelin, a French tire company, about two years ago when the stock was faltering amid a decline in world auto sales. “The perception is that Michelin’s end market has peaked,” she says. “But tire sales are not shaped by the number of new cars sold, but also by how many miles are driven on existing cars. We felt this misperception presented a buying opportunity.” Also, the stock sells at a modest 11 times earnings and has a 3.5% dividend yield.

Investors also steered clear of mobile telecommunications giant China Mobile after government restrictions forced price increases for many of its products and caused it to lose market share. But the company has successfully brought costs back down and gained back much of the market share it lost. “You have to remember this is a company with 700 million subscribers, about three times the size of Verizon,” Bhansali says. “Most Chinese people only use their mobile phones for voice, so it’s only a matter of time before they expand into data.” The stock sells for 12 times earnings and has a 3.5% dividend yield.

She thinks U.K.-based pharma company GlaxoSmithKline should see big improvements in three of its leading divisions in the years to come. In the respiratory products area, successor drugs to the company’s blockbuster Advair, now off patent, should propel earnings growth going forward. GlaxoSmithKline’s profit margins in the vaccine business declined as costs stemming from the acquisition of a vaccine company took a toll, but its bottom line should improve as the transition progresses smoothly and the target company is absorbed. And in the consumer area, the potential for cost saving from restructuring should augment great franchises and recognized brands. Trading at 16 times earnings, the stock has a 5.5% yield.

Although she’s a bottom-up stock picker, Bhansali also considers broader economic trends, and she sees a number of troubling ones. The dramatic increase in leverage among U.S. and European companies over the past few years is particularly troubling. Lured by cheap interest rates, many of them have gone on a borrowing binge reminiscent of the consumer debt party that thrived before the financial crisis in 2008. “There’s an artificial sense of complacency,” she says. “But eventually, this rampant borrowing will come back to haunt companies, as well as governments.”

Deflation, now a reality in an era of anemic economic growth for many areas, is another concern. With limited ability to raise prices, and wages at a virtual standstill in many developed countries, many companies will have a difficult time servicing all the debt they’ve accumulated.

“The only way out for companies will be to improve productivity and determine how to do more with less,” she says. “Japanese companies figured out how to do it, and companies around the world are going to have to do the same.”

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