Portfolio Review 2023 – Mark Bentley

This blog gives you the latest topical news plus some informal comments on them from ShareSoc’s directors and other contributors. These are the personal comments of the authors and not necessarily the considered views of ShareSoc. The writers may hold shares in the companies mentioned. You can add your own comments on the blog posts, but note that ShareSoc reserves the right to remove or edit comments where they are inappropriate or defamatory.

This article reflects the opinions of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Introduction This is now my fourth annual comprehensive portfolio review. See my 2020 review for an explanation of my investment objectives, strategy, “asset types” and investment accounts. My 2022 review can be found here. 2023 was again a difficult and disappointing […]

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5 Comments
  1. Amin Mohammed says:

    Your asset allocation has International at 21.6%.

    I cannot tell how much of the rest of the portfolio is really international since many UK companies have the majority of their operations elsewhere. e.g. BP plc or HSBC plc. Subject to that caveat, I would say that you are far too overweight the UK, which is only a small part of the global equity market.

    Many investors prefer to invest in their home country. Such “home country bias” is always a mistake in my view, even for investors who are American and therefore live in a country which is over 50% of the global stockmarket.

  2. Mark Bentley says:

    You are right, Amin that many of the other companies (especially in the Natural Resources class) are actually international. When I last estimated my exposure, about 50% of my investments’ revenues were in US$.

    The “International class” is intended as a specific focus on non-UK businesses.

  3. Chris Hardstaff says:

    Hi Mark, Congratulations on a very comprehensive review, and thank you for all your hard work. A quick comment on one or our mutual holdings – Cranswick. Like you I am pleased with their recent update, and believe there is still plenty of upside for them. I just wonder how imminent is the threat from the rise in cultured meats (see Agronomics.) I’m guessing it will be decades rather than years, but would be interested in your views. (PS just beat you – I was up 4.3%.) Thanks again, Chris

    • Mark Bentley says:

      Hi Chris

      The issue of cultured meats was something I wondered about too, so I asked Cranswick’s directors about it at the last AGM I attended.

      As you would expect, it is very much on their radar and they are keeping a close eye on developments. Their opinion is that it will take a lot of work and investment before cultured meat moves from being a lab concept to becoming a large scale, commercial proposition. It’s one thing creating it in lab but quite another to scale production up and produce a product at a cost that is economically viable.

      Best
      Mark

      • Chris Hardstaff says:

        Thanks Mark, that’s my feeling too; but it’s amazing how quickly things can happen, especially if some Governments get behind the idea.

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