Richard Wong has been part of the team that overhauled the $2.6-billion Mackenzie Cundill Value starting in March 2016, when he and co-manager Jonathan Norwood took over the mandate. Yet Wong maintains that the deep-value principles used by previous managers are still very much intact.
"If you look at our portfolio, stocks are trading at an average 1.4 times price-to-book," says Wong, senior vice-president, investments at Toronto-based Mackenzie Investments. "The market, as measured by the MSCI World Index, is 2.3 times. That's a 40% discount to the global market. So the deep-value focus has not changed."
Take the financials, which account for about one-third of the portfolio. "They represent compelling value right now," says Wong, a 23-year industry veteran who previously managed U.S. and international portfolios at Mississauga, Ontario-based Lincluden Investment Management Ltd. "They are the arguably cheapest part of the market," says Wong, noting, for instance, that 
Citigroup Inc. (C) is trading at 0.8 times book value. " American International Group Inc. (AIG), one of our large holdings, is also trading at 0.8 times book," adds Wong, who works alongside Norwood, who previously managed U.S. and international equity funds at Halifax-based Louisbourg Investment Management Inc.
