Avoiding the scrum

Management teams play a crucial role in business. In this podcast, Adam chats with Latitude IM's Managing Partner and portfolio manager Freddie Lait on the merits of analysing management incentives and behaviour, as well as their role in determining a company's fate. They go onto compare the tale of two retailers – US auto part retailer AutoZone, and UK stalwart Tesco – demonstrating how relatively simple businesses models can compound value and generate strong investment performance through time. Don't forget to subscribe if you like what you hear!

Investing is complex. How best to simplify it? NZS Capital are a Denver, Colorado, based investment boutique who use lessons from the natural world to frame their investment process. In this episode, Adam chats with Brinton Johns and Jon Bathgate on why it's important not to make too many predictions, but to focus on businesses who are adaptable and create more value than they take. And why NZS structure their own portfolios to major on business who exhibit resiliency and optionality. 

It's not quite been 'Anarchy in the UK' but it has certainly been a challenging period for UK equity investors.  In this month's podcast we chat to Ken Wotton and Cassie Herlihy from the Gresham House Public Equity team.  Alongside a broader discussion of the UK market's fortunes we explore why M&A has been such a large feature of small cap investing and their listed investment trust – Strategic Equity Capital.

In the first podcast of the year, we look ahead to events and trends which could drive economies and financial markets.  What if central banks ease monetary policy and what impact will politics have as half the world's population head to the polls? What if artificial intelligence takes all of our jobs and will Swansea City FC make the play-offs?  Adam and Anthony chat all of the above and more with Charlene Malik and George Curtis from the fittingly named TwentyFour Asset Management. Don't forget to subscribe if you like what you hear!

In part two of our 'Open Minded to Closed Ended' miniseries, Adam chats with entrepreneur turned venture capital investor Tim Levene, CEO of Augmentum. Augmentum Fintech is a London listed Investment Trust targeting fast growing businesses many years before they're mature enough for public market listings or acquisition. At such an early stage these businesses are often loss-making – how best to decide between today's cash burners and help them become the future cash flow generators? With real examples, Adam and Tim explore how the team works alongside budding entrepreneurs, discuss how the large financial incumbents are likely acquirers of fintechs and highlight how, just like with well-known platform 'Interactive Investor', successful cash exits are important.

Welcome to our miniseries on closed ended funds (otherwise known as Investment Trusts). The sector has faced a torrid time in 2023, as interest rates rose, regulatory headwinds persisted, and UK equities remained hideously out of favour. In the series, we aim to highlight why accessing markets outside through listed Investment Trusts is additive for Multi-Manager portfolios, and shouldn't be just the privilege of private markets. First up, The Renewables Infrastructure Group, a trust dedicated to the generation of power from renewable sources for UK and Europe.

On the eve of the Rugby World Cup, Adam and Scott went up-and-under with Chris Fidyk of Pacific Asset Management on how to avoid the scrum of mega cap US equities. Having spent the past decade investing in the technology winners at a previous investment group, Chris recently launched on his own and now sees the opportunity set away from the largest stocks in the US market.

This month Adam and Paul are in conversation with David Mitchinson from Japan equity boutique Zennor Asset Management. Long known as the 'widow-maker' trade, buying Japanese assets has been a fool's errand for the past twenty years. Is there really something different about today's Japanese opportunity or will investors have Tamago on their faces once more?

With eyes focused on the Coronation festivities we take a timely look at UK equities. Paul and Adam chat with Artemis's Ed Legget – they discuss why the asset class has been out of favour for so long and ask whether it's a market of the past or home to overlooked diamonds.Don't forget to subscribe if you like what you hear!

In this month's podcast, Adam & Scott chat China equities with Man GLG's Andrew Swan. With state intervention, property woes and covid lockdowns now behind us, will equity markets run hard in the Chinese year of the rabbit?