On 14 October, Cantab Asset Management held two events in London giving City professionals the opportunity to discuss the current investment climate. David Saunderson, Cantab Chief Executive, and Ranjeet Guptara , Associate Director and Portfolio Manager (pictured above), compered the Conversations.
The events were a great opportunity to hear from fund managers, who, while all successful, often had differing perspectives on the best investment strategy for the current economic landscape.
At Ironmongers’ Hall, we were joined by Julian Fosh (co-manager of the Liontrust Special Situations fund) and Alex Homan (investment director of the Fidelity Emerging Markets fund). With Ranjeet Guptara (a Cantab Portfolio Manager) in the chair, Julian explained the importance of intellectual capital, strong distribution channels and significant recurring business in his investment analysis. He argued that companies with these characteristics will most likely offer consistent returns due to their ability to outperform in most of the economic cycle. Alex highlighted the importance of changing demographics to investment portfolios. He believes that, as an individual retiring at 60 may expect to live for 25 or 30 more years, they still require a good proportion of growth-oriented holdings (such as emerging markets funds) in their portfolio to fund the retirement years. Growth in India and other emerging markets should enhance investment returns for companies operating therein.
In the evening in Canary Wharf, Alexander Darwall (fund manager of Jupiter European) and Julian Fosh discussed their views with Ranjeet and our guests. Alexander focuses on companies with pricing power, high barriers to entry, visible and recurrent demand growth and a favourable competitive landscape
Cantab Asset Management held two more conversations for City professionals on 12 November. We were joined at lunchtime in the City of London by Adrian Bignell (fund manager of Invesco Perpetual European Smaller Companies) and Katherine Dryer (product specialist director on Jupiter’s fixed interest and multi-asset team).
In the evening, we were at Canary Wharf talking with Rory Powe (fund manager of GLG Continental Europe) and Holly Cassel (assistant fund manager of Neptune UK Mid Cap). Rory and Holly explained the importance of identifying companies with sustainable, long term competitive advantages that will succeed regardless of the economic performance of the countries in which they are located.
