BUZZ-Hermes: brand power
** Combination of powerful brand, pricing power & global reach drawing buyside to French luxury goods co Hermes
** Aberdeen AM's Bertie Thomson looking at Hermes & Scilla Huang Sun, manager of JB Luxury Brands fund at Swiss & Global Asset Mgmt, recently upped holding in co
** Both attracted to brand's strength & co's growth - at c.8 pct vs rivals LVMH & Kering on c.3-5 pct, says Thomson
** For Thomson, senior investment manager of Aberdeen AM's Global-European Equity Fund, while valuation lofty (c.35x 1Y fwd PE), Hermes "probably one of the best examples of robust pricing power"; notes co adjusts pricing globally to generate same gross margin in each country
** For luxury goods cos broadly, China's slowing economy & anti-graft campaign have been a worry but, crucially, sales downturn seen in Hong Kong does not mean Chinese are spending less - rather elsewhere, S&G AM's Huang Sun says
** She flags explosion in Chinese tourist spend in Europe early 2015 amid weak euro; given travel flow/FX hard to predict, prefers cos with global exposure (also holds BMW (Swiss: BMW.SW - news) , Ferragamo, Swatch & Estee Lauder )
** On the flipside, Mulberry has less of a global reach, while Korean cosmetics & hotels/casinos in Macau have none, she says (RM (LSE: RM.L - news) : tricia.wright1.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)