Investors bet on cruises, corner stores, cosmetics in aging Asia

SINGAPORE (April 7): China may be at risk of getting old before it gets rich, but investors can still get rich from China getting old.

And it’s not all just about buying health-care stocks. Cruise operators, convenience stores and cosmetics makers are emerging as sectors that stand to benefit from the demographic consequences of the Communist leadership’s now-abandoned one-child policy.

China’s latest population plan estimates that about a quarter of the country’s population will be 60 years old or older by 2030. This is a new phenomenon for the country, said Tuan Huynh, Deutsche Bank Wealth Management’s Singapore-based Asia-Pacific chief investment officer. “With this kind of increase in age and age groups, there will be a change in patterns of spending.”

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