This is an area of the market that investors are waking up to. The recent $2.2bn (£1.4bn) initial public offering from Zoetis – Pfizer’s animal health division, the largest in the industry – exceeded expectations, was 17 times oversubscribed and was one of the largest debuts since Facebook. Meetings during the company’s nine-day road show were often standing room only as potential buyers and analysts crowded into conference rooms to listen to Zoetis’s executives and its advisers pitching the company. Pfizer retains 80 per cent ownership currently but has recently announced plans to spin off its remaining interest to focus on core businesses.
What can we learn from pets? First, demographic trends are not just about humans – and the intelligent investor looks beyond high-level data to see growing markets, such as those around pets. And second, having found such a growth market, there are many different ways an investor may choose to gain exposure. How many of these ‘second derivative’ effects of population change are considered by investors? And how many opportunities are missed?
James Bateman is head of multi-manager and multi-asset portfolio management for Fidelity Worldwide Investment
