Baron Emerging Markets Select Strategy

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSM), known as TSMC, is the world's largest independent semiconductor foundry, manufacturing chips on behalf of other companies.
TSMC is the dominant force in leading-edge semiconductor foundry manufacturing, as it benefits from economies of scale and a superior cost structure. The company's successful track record of deploying new technology faster than competitors helps it maintain market share and pricing power. We believe TSMC’s investments in advanced nodes will strengthen its market leadership and support long-term profitability.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (005930.KS) is a Korean technology conglomerate known for its leadership in consumer electronics and semiconductor manufacturing.
Samsung is the bellwether for global technology innovation and continues to deliver robust earnings across memory, logic, display, and smartphones. We are confident Samsung can maintain its technology leadership for years to come, given its strong research and development track record and ability to meet ever-changing global consumer demand.

SK hynix Inc. (000660.KS) is a South Korean semiconductor manufacturer and a leading global supplier of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and NAND flash memory, used across data centers, AI accelerators, PCs, smartphones, and other electronic devices.
Memory demand is structurally growing as devices become increasingly computationally intensive. We believe SK hynix will remain a key beneficiary of rising adoption of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), which leverages advanced packaging to vertically stack DRAM chips, delivering higher bandwidth, improved power efficiency, and a smaller form factor. SK hynix has emerged as the industry leader in cutting-edge HBM, and we expect the company to generate strong earnings growth over the next several years, with significant upside from incremental long-term AI-driven demand.

Tencent Holdings Limited (700.HK) is a leading internet services provider and the top game developer in China. Tencent's primary platforms include QQ for instant messaging and WeChat for mobile messaging, social media, and mobile payments.
We are bullish on Tencent's ability to grow earnings per share at low double digit rates over the long term. The core franchise—gaming, social networks, and advertising—remains highly durable. It is protected by network effects, deep user engagement, and an embedded merchant and payments ecosystem that competitors cannot easily replicate. We see AI as an incremental option on top of an already resilient core, with early signs of traction across products, including a WeChat agent opportunity that plays directly to Tencent's ecosystem strengths.

Divi’s Laboratories Ltd. (DIVI.IN) is a leading player in pharmaceutical contract manufacturing and production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) for the generics industry. Divi’s focuses on complex value-add projects, earning high margins and returns on capital.
Divi's is a beneficiary of increased API outsourcing by global pharmaceutical companies. The company has a dominant position with >60% market share in key APIs such as Naproxen and Dextromethorphan, given its economies of scale and lower cost structure. We expect the company to generate 10% to 15% earnings growth for the next five years driven by continued robust demand.

Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) is China's largest e-commerce and cloud computing company. Alibaba owns and operates Taobao and Tmall—China's two largest online shopping platforms—alongside AliCloud, a leading China AI/cloud infrastructure provider with proprietary T-Head chips and Qwen models.
With over 1 billion annual active buyers and over 10 million merchants, we believe Alibaba benefits from the increased penetration of internet, mobile, and e-commerce in China. Alibaba is the largest player in e-commerce in China, and we expect it to remain a dominant force for years to come, though we acknowledge substantial low-priced competition. We increasingly view it as one of the best-positioned proxies for China's AI supply chain, with a differentiated full-stack position across proprietary chips, cloud infrastructure, and leading models.

Bajaj Finance Limited (BAF.IN) is a leading, non-banking financial company in India. It offers various financial products and services including housing loans, consumer durables financing, small- and medium-sized enterprise credit, and rural loans.  
We believe Bajaj is well positioned to benefit from growing demand for consumer financial services in India. The company’s data analytics platform is a key competitive advantage, enabling high risk-adjusted returns; in our view, return on equity can be sustained at 20%–22%. Bajaj is also building a broader digital ecosystem, with apps offering insurance, brokerage, wealth management, and other financial products. We expect Bajaj to compound earnings at roughly 25% annually over the next five years.

Eternal Limited (ETERNAL.IN) owns India’s leading food delivery platform, Zomato, and quick commerce platform, Blinkit. Zomato holds an estimated 55% of food delivery, while Blinkit accounts for approximately 40% of quick commerce. 
Eternal is well positioned to benefit from structural growth in online food delivery in India. The industry has become a duopoly between Swiggy and Eternal, which bodes well for future economics and scale. Eternal is also leading competition in the fast-growing quick commerce industry in India. We believe the company has the potential to double revenue while also improving profitability and growing earnings over the next three to five years. 

Southern Copper Corporation (SCCO) is a low-cost, integrated copper producer with long-life mines in Peru and Mexico. It mines, smelts, and refines copper and also produces molybdenum, silver, and zinc. It has the largest copper reserves of any listed company and is 88.9% owned by Grupo México.
Southern Copper combines the largest copper reserves of any listed company, long mine lives, and low-cost operations. Its organic project pipeline, led by Tia Maria, is expected to increase copper production about 68% by 2035. We are bullish on copper as electrification, grid investment, and AI data centers drive demand, while declining ore grades, limited discoveries, and long project lead times constrain supply. We expect these advantages to support strong long-term cash flow growth.

MediaTek Inc. (2454.TT) is a Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company that is the world's largest supplier of smartphone application processors.
We expect MediaTek will benefit from the secular growth in 5G smartphone adoption, driving a higher average selling price for its application processors while leveraging its strong technological capabilities to gain market share in the premium smartphone segment. We also believe the company’s competitively advantaged non-smartphone product portfolio, including Wi-Fi chips, PC modems, and Power Management Integrated Circuits, has structural upside from long-term semiconductor content growth.