Top Fidelity Money Manager Bets on Electric Cars, Refineries

(Bloomberg) -- A top Fidelity money manager's all over the coming electric vehicle revolution, but he's also betting gas-guzzlers have life in them.

Sammy Simnegar predicts dramatic growth in electric vehicles over the next five to ten years, based on countries taking aggressive measures: Some, like China, Norway, France and the U.K. have already given dates for when they want to ban internal combustion engines.

The Boston-based money manager, who oversees $11 billion for Fidelity Management & Research Co., took a stake in LG Chem, a chemical company investing heavily in battery technology, which rose almost 50% percent this year. That bet has helped his emerging markets fund provide some of the best returns this year, among the top 4% of all portfolios tracked by Bloomberg.

But Simnegar, 44, also bought into Reliance Industries in India and Tupras Petrol Rafinerileri in Turkey about a year ago, and the refining stocks have risen nearly 70 percent year-to-date. His goal: to capitalize on what he sees as an upcoming shortage in oil refining.

Over the medium term "there will be a time period where oil demand rises slowly, but there's no refining capacity added," Simnegar said in a phone interview. Lower supply will translate into higher refinery earnings during the transition, and the effect will be more pronounced in developing countries.

"Because they're emerging markets, demand for oil is likely to rise for a much longer time period before it peaks out, whereas demand for oil in places like Europe, Japan and the U.S. has already been declining for some time," he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Villamil in New York at jvillamil18@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rita Nazareth at rnazareth@bloomberg.net, Arie Shapira at ashapira3@bloomberg.net, Christiana Sciaudone

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