Last year’s Brexit referendum has created a huge amount of uncertainty for British businesses and the election of a minority Conservative government has muddied the waters even further. The lack of political leadership has made it difficult to assess the long-term economic impact of our departure from the EU on domestically focused companies, many of…
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the new Supermarket Income REIT (LON:SUPR), which is in the process of buying a portfolio of supermarket freeholds. These sites that are already up and running will then be leased back in order to generate a high and inflation-linked yield for investors. SUPR is one of a…
The United Nations estimates that the world’s population will increase by about a billion by 2030, with the over 60s bracket growing faster than the younger age groups. By 2050 the number of people aged 60 or more will have more than doubled to 2.1 billion and there is also likely to be a significant…
Income investors frustrated by the low rates of interest have had to look elsewhere for alternative sources of yield. The ideal investment for anyone in this position would be a relatively low risk fund that pays a reliable inflation-linked income like a property or infrastructure investment trust, but most of these vehicles are now trading…
Buying an investment fund is unlike almost any other purchase you will ever make as you are not told upfront how much it is going to cost you. The best available estimate is the ‘ongoing charges’ figure, which is disclosed in the associated literature, but it does not give you the full picture. A fund’s…
Technology is transforming the world and changing the way we do things. Until a few years ago developments like robotics, artificial intelligence and virtual reality were rarely to be found outside of science fiction, but many of them are now part of our everyday lives. Investing in companies at the cutting edge of these new…
It has been more than 10 years since we have had an interest rate rise in the UK with the ultra-low rates putting pressure on yields right across the board. The average notice account now pays 0.9% − considerably less than inflation – compared to 5% in July 2007 and the investment grade corporate bond…
Listed Private Equity funds have delivered strong returns in the last few years, but despite this most are still trading on double-digit discounts. Many investors have been reluctant to return after the poor performance during the 2008 financial crisis, although the fundamentals across the sector are now much stronger. Private Equity funds are investment trusts…
Since the financial crisis we have had a decade of virtually zero interest rates that has resulted in a high and potentially unsustainable level of global debt. This now stands at £168 trillion or 327% of world GDP, compared to 276% before the 2007 meltdown. The cheap and readily available liquidity has pushed up asset…
The 2008 financial crisis may seem like a distant memory, but the ongoing ramifications are still a massive threat to your wealth. Concerted intervention by the world’s most powerful central banks managed to avert an immediate global meltdown, although we’re all going to pay the price in the form of higher inflation. The historically low…
