Aristotle International Equity Fund on Pan Pacific International Holdings

Pan Pacific is a Japanese discount retailer whose shares were pressured by acquisition concerns, new-format costs and questions around gross-margin sustainability. Aristotle nevertheless believes the long-term thesis remains intact because the company benefits from differentiated formats, decentralized merchandising, strong value positioning and a track record of improving acquired assets. Strong discount-store same-store sales, private-label expansion, UNY margin improvement and newer concepts including Robin Hood and Rail-side Donki provide a continued domestic growth runway.