Business Perspective Investing – Why Financial Numbers Are Not Important When Picking Shares

Hamish Mair, Managing Director, Head of Private Equity at BMO Global Asset Management and the fund manager of BMO Private Equity Trust PLC – Hamish has over 30 years of investment experience, the vast majority of which is in private equity. Hamish joined BMO Global Asset Management in June 2005 when the private equity business of Martin Currie was acquired by BMO along with the management contract for Martin Currie Capital Return Trust (now BMO Private Equity Trust PLC). As head of the team, he has overall responsibility for the investment performance of the trust and the limited partnership funds, as well as the business development of the firm’s private equity business. Hamish was with Martin Currie for 15 years, the last 9 as a director. In addition to private equity, Hamish has managed investment trusts and other funds in the smaller companies sector and began his time at Martin Currie in the Far East team. Before Martin Currie Hamish was an investment analyst with Robert Fleming Asset Management. He graduated with a first class honours degree in Geography from Aberdeen University in 1988 and in 1996 received an MBA from Edinburgh University. He is an Associate of the UK Society of Investment Professionals and is a member of the advisory boards and committees of several private equity funds.

Sophie Flak, CSR and Digital Director – Member of the Executive Committee, Eurazeo – Sophie Flak joined Eurazeo in 2013 as Director of CSR. In this role, she has implemented strategic CSR pillars and defined objectives for 2020 for Eurazeo and all its investments. Since 2015, Sophie Flak coordinates the digital transformation of the investments. Before that Sophie Flak was member of the Executive Committee overseeing the Group’s transformation and, specifically, Technologies, Organization, Innovation, and CSR. She was instrumental in positioning the Accor Group as a global sustainable development leader with the launch of the Planet 21 program. Prior to her work at Accor, Sophie Flak was a Partner of the consulting firm Accenture’s strategy division. A specialist in the coordination of major corporate transformation programs and innovation strategies, Sophie created Accenture France’s sustainable development consulting business.

Vicki Bradley, Head of Investor Relations, Pantheon International PLC – Vicki is Head of Investor Relations for Pantheon International Plc. Prior to joining Pantheon, Vicki held a number of investor relations and communications roles at FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies as well as at a Dutch-listed investment trust. Vicki has a BA Hons in Modern Languages.

Deborah Botwood Smith – LPeC Chief Executive – Deborah was Director of External Relations and Director of Marketing at the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), the trade body for banks operating in Europe’s wholesale financial markets. Before that she was a Managing Director at alternative investment firm Investcorp, where she had global responsibility for corporate communications and stakeholder engagement for the firm’s private equity, hedge funds and real estate investment. Previously, she was Director of Group Corporate Communications at Coutts NatWest Group and Head of Corporate Relations, Europe, Middle East, Africa at Visa International.

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Dr George Olcott, Board Member, Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Denso Corporation and Kirin Holdings – Dr. Olcott is Guest Professor at the Faculty of Commerce, Keio University After graduating from the Oxford University with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, he spent five years in Hong Kong and Japan working for Cathay Pacific Airways. After then spending two years at Shell International in London, he joined the UK merchant bank SG Warburg (now UBS Investment Bank). He spent fifteen years at Warburg, ten of which were in Tokyo, where his last position was Managing Director and head of the Equity Capital Markets Group. He also spent three years as CEO of UBS’s institutional asset management operation in Japan. He left UBS to embark on his Ph.D. at Cambridge in 2001. His research interests are Japan and Japanese organisations, corporate governance and organisational change, particularly in the face of globalization pressures. His first book, Conflict and Change: Foreign Ownership and the Japanese Firm was published by Cambridge University Press in 2009, with a Japanese version published by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun in July 2010. He joined the boards of Nippon Sheet Glass in 2008 (retired in 2014), NKSJ Holdings in 2010 (retired in 2014) and Hitachi Chemical in 2014 (retired in 2020). He is currently a board member of Denso Corporation (since 2014), Dai-ichi Life Holdings (since 2015) and Kirin Holdings (since 2020). In the UK, he is a board member of JP Morgan Japanese Investment Trust plc and BlueOptima plc.

 He also has an MBA from INSEAD in France.

Sally Macdonald, Fund Manager, Far East Growth Fund, Marlborough Fund Managers – Sally has been in financial services for over 34 years and joined Marlborough in 2013, where she runs the Far East Growth Fund. Prior to joining, Sally worked for City of London Investment Management, was a Partner at Dalton Strategic partnership and led the Asian desk at Morley Fund Management, where she managed over £3.4bn in assets. She has also held positions as an Associate Director at Sanwa International, Head of Asia Pacific Equities at Lazard Brothers Asset Management and ran the Asian desk at Canada Life between November 1997 and 2004. Sally has a BA (Hons) in classics and is an associate of the CFA Society of the UK and the CFA Institute and a member of both the Pensions Management Institute and CISI. Sally is also a Director of JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust, a Trustee on the Board of Helping the Burmese Delta and a Partner in Stevington Partners.

Terence F. Mahony, Vice Chairman, VinaCapital – Mr Mahony is a recognised leader and pioneer in emerging market investing, with an extensive global financial career spanning over 40 years. Mr Mahony first worked with the Bank of London and South America in London and Zurich, followed by broking positions at White Weld and Paine Webber. His fund management experience began in Boston with the highly successful Baring Puma Latin American Fund which he launched in 1991 for Barings as Director and CIO for Latin America. After Barings, he returned to Hong Kong and became the first CIO of HSBC’s new global emerging markets strategy. At HSBC Mr Mahony built a team from scratch and launched the bank’s first Global Emerging Markets Fund. From 1996 to 1999 he was Managing Director for Emerging Markets Equities, CIO of Global Emerging Markets Equity Strategy and President of Trust Company of the West (TCW) Asia Limited. From 2000 to 2008, he was a director and member of the investment committee of Investment Manager Selection (IMS) Limited in London. In 2008, Mr Mahony served as interim CIO for Indochina Capital, having served on its board. Mr Mahony is based in Hong Kong and serves on the boards of various investment funds as a non-executive director.

Jon Wallace, Fund Manager, Jupiter Green Investment Trust. Before joining Jupiter, Jon worked at Forum for the Future, a sustainability advisor to corporate and public organisations. Jon has a BA in Economics and History from Oxford University, and an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College, London.

Gavin has worked in the investment, and more specifically the spread betting, industry for over 20 years, with particular focus on trading equities. The last 8 years have been spent as a Sales Trader at IG and before that he was part of trading team at Spreadex when they started business back in 2000.

Laith Khalaf started his career in financial services at Hargreaves Lansdown in 2001, since which time he’s worked in a variety of roles across pensions and investments, covering both DIY and advised business. In 2007 he began to focus on research and analysis, and has since become a leading industry commentator, and a regular contributor to the financial pages of the national press. He’s a frequent guest on TV and radio, and for several years provided daily business bulletins on LBC. He now holds the position of financial analyst with AJ Bell, responsible for producing analysis and content focused on investments and personal finance topics for AJ Bell’s customers and the financial media.

Judith joined Downing in October 2009. Previously she was a partner at Acuity Capital managing AIM-quoted VCT and IHT investments and a small-cap activist fund. Prior to Acuity, Judith spent nine years as a senior investment manager with Aberdeen Asset Management Growth Capital as co Fund Manager of the 5 Aberdeen VCTs, focusing on technology and media investments in both the public and private arenas. Judith is a Non Executive Director of the Quoted Companies Alliance and is an active member on Boards both in the private and public arenas.

Nick trained as a chartered accountant, qualifying in 1992. Since qualifying he has acted as a corporate broker and investment banker at Crédit Lyonnais Securities (1994 to 2000), Robert W. Baird Limited (2000 to 2004) and Noble & Company (2005 to 2008). During his career he has advised a wide variety of companies on numerous transactions, including fund raisings, acquisitions and restructurings as well as acting as finance director to an online retailer. Nick joined Allenby Capital in July 2009 and became its Chief Executive in July 2011.

Steven joined Oakley in 2017 and has more than 18 years of investment banking experience. Steven’s focus is fund raising, communications and investor relations for Oakley Capital Investments, Oakley Capital and its portfolio companies. Prior to joining Oakley, Steven was a founding partner of investment bank Liberum Capital, where he raised equity capital for hundreds of companies and advised on public market listings. He began his career in 1997 at Collins Stewart, where he held equity research and sales roles.

Holly has worked in finance since 1999. She is a financial expert, a commentator on investment markets and the founder and MD of Boring Money. She passionately believes that we can explain things better, and that investments shouldn’t just be for “The Old Boys”.

Holly is a regular media commentator and has appeared on or contributed to the BBC, The Times, The Telegraph and The Mail on Sunday. She is living proof that you can be in Set 4 for Maths when you’re 13 and still get your head around investments.

Behind the Balance Sheet is a top training consultancy for professional equity analysts with clients including Schroders, Legal and General, Baillie Gifford, Ruffer, Pictet and many more. Founder Steve Clapham is a veteran analyst with many years of experience on the sell side and as a partner and head of research at two multi billion hedge funds. He now also runs online courses for private investors. Watch the video to learn more.

An investment strategy is what guides an investor’s decisions based on goals, risk tolerance, and future needs for capital. Some investment strategies seek rapid growth where an investor focuses on capital appreciation, or they can follow a low-risk strategy where the focus is on wealth protection.

Diversifying your portfolio is important to manage your risk. What does diversification mean? It means spreading your risk between investments with different characteristics, so that if one investment, or group of investments doesn’t perform well it doesn’t do too much damage to the overall performance of your portfolio.

For example, it is unwise for your portfolio to be invested in only one or two companies: should one of those companies fail, you could lose a very large part of your available capital, which it would be hard to recover from.

Types of Diversification

There are various ways you can diversify your portfolio. Most obviously by investing in several companies. Another consideration, however, is geographical diversification, i.e. not having all your investments linked to the economic performance of one country or region. A common failing of investors is “home country bias”, i.e. focusing your investments on companies operating in the country you live in or are most familiar with. Should that country underperform economically (or if shares in that country’s markets appear overpriced), that will damage your returns, so it makes sense to include investments that are exposed to a variety of regions in your portfolio (biasing towards those that appear to offer the best prospective returns).