Investors grab European equities to gain cheap US exposure

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Investors seeking returns from the buoyant American market are turning to European stocks which have significant US exposure but are trading at a discount to their transatlantic counterparts, equity investors say.

Groups such as UK defence group BAE Systems, France’s Schneider Electric and pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk are among the big European names that have risen sharply this year as investors hunt for cheaper, similar versions of top-performing US companies.

BAE has risen 17 per cent, Schneider is up 29 per cent and Novo Nordisk has gained 11 per cent.

“The fact you’re able to get these businesses at a lower valuation is being overlooked,” said Dev Chakrabarti, chief investment officer for concentrated global growth at AllianceBernstein, which holds positions in several Europe-based companies with large US exposure, including SAP.

“That’s a pricing inefficiency that we continue to exploit, and we do expect to get paid on that inefficiency,” Chakrabarti added.

Friday’s strong US jobs data strengthened investors’ expectations that America will pull off a so-called soft landing, in which inflation falls rapidly but it maintains robust growth and strong employment. However, sentiment for the outlook in Europe has been more negative, where business activity has slowed as inflation has fallen.

Dozens of large European companies generate the bulk of their sales in the US. Novo Nordisk, which makes the best-selling Ozempic and Wegovy weight-loss drugs, earns close to 60 per cent of its revenues from the US, while the market is nearly 50 per cent of defence giant BAE Systems’ turnover.

However Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, Europe’s largest company by market capitalisation, has trailed US competitor Eli Lilly, whose shares have soared 51 per cent this year.

Some investors argue this makes the European group the more attractive investment, as it trades at a price-to earnings ratio to December 2025 of 27 times, compared with 39 times for its US rival, according to data from FactSet.

Steven Smith, an equity investment director at Capital Group, said he saw opportunities in European pharmaceutical and semiconductor businesses, with these multinationals trading at discounts against their American peers.

“Where there’s a European and US equivalent, the former is trading at a valuation discount and we would say that’s an opportunity,” Smith added.

Phil Macartney, a European equities fund manager at Jupiter Asset Management, said it was picking companies such as data provider Experian, power group Schneider Electric and software maker SAP, which have both US exposure and were likely to benefit from further interest rate cuts. “The earnings power has remained with them,” he said.

Louise Dudley, a portfolio manager at Federated Hermes, said that pairing European companies’ improved governance — including workforce conditions and robust plans for the transition to net zero — with US exposure was one further advantage.

“A European-based company that meets these standards but has exposure to the US market as a growth driver is an attractive company,” Dudley added.

In July Goldman Sachs urged clients to build positions in about 45 European businesses with large US exposure to leverage higher growth, as the 12 month forward price-to-earnings ratio on its basket of selected stocks was at the time trading at its lowest level since the global financial crisis.

Sharon Bell, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, said: “European companies have always been very global. This isn’t unusual . . . what’s changed is the US has gone on a much bigger premium.”

The bank has since changed its rating to “no active recommendation” as stocks have risen. Even so, the basket — which includes Novo Nordisk, BAE Systems and Stellantis — remains below its longtime average.