Between now and 2020, the Chinese economy is forecast to grow at 2.5x the rate of the UK economy. This means that while China’s economy is 3.85 times bigger than the UK’s economy today, in three years’ time it is expected to be 4.55 times larger. Beyond that, it seems highly likely that China’s economy…
Farming and food production, long-since a Cinderella business, has just become a cool investment space. This month we look at how to make decent returns from feeding the world. How a world of 9.6 billion people in 2050 is going to feed itself in an environmentally sustainable and humane way is one of the greatest…
If you had decided to double up your exposure to the London stock market at the beginning of last year then you would have done well in 2016. The FTSE-100 was up by 14.4 percent on the year, confounding the economic realists (like me) and the Brexit doomsayers (not like me). Though, if you were…
This week has been a cruel one for Next plc (LON:NXT). It has seen its share price fall by around 17% following the release of a profit warning. In my view, the downgrade in profit expectations for the 2017 financial year was hardly surprising. After all, the company had warned that 2016 ‘may be the…
The recovery in mining stocks took many by surprise in 2016. However, despite the renaissance, there is still a heavy weight of opinion against the mining sector. With this in mind, the contrarian in me is optimistic for continued outperformance in 2017. I know my writing here is too intermittent to update readers on investment…
BP is entering a new phase in its history, with it having drawn a line under the costly oil spill of 2010. Its valuation and yield have appeal in my view within a sector that remains generally undervalued. Therefore, I feel that now is the right time to buy BP and that 2017 could be…
Happy New Year! As if 2016 wasn’t tumultuous enough, 2017 promises to hold many more surprises. Here’s a selection of our best ideas from some of our favourite commentators… Alphabet Inc. (Google) – Victor Hill During 2016 I wrote more about Alphabet/Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) than any other company. Reading around, I came to understand that Google…
In the January edition of the MI magazine I’m going to be talking about food. Specifically: why global agribusiness is likely to step centre-stage in the next decade. Basically there are two main reasons. Firstly, the world’s population is growing faster than crop yields are rising. Secondly, we are running out of new agricultural land…
We do not focus on short-term performance issues; we focus on the valuation of fundamentals. Our disciplined approach guides us, we believe, to the best opportunities in the stock market and we are very patient investors. We expect our performance to improve when the market begins again to focus, as it inevitably will, on valuation.…
Perhaps the main effect of Brexit thus far has been a weakening of sterling. This is set to cause a rise in inflation as imports become increasingly expensive. Although the Bank of England remains dovish, a tighter monetary policy stance may become necessary as the price level rises at a faster pace and weaker sterling…
