The information below details the content from our Mello Monday held on 28th September
Company presentation – A new Investment Trust IPO
John and I have edited the list down to the questions we did not cover during Mello Monday’s webinar and removed those where the same underlying question is asked twice. Everything else is on our website www.tbrgt.co.uk including past performance, fees, board biographies and trust terms.
Q. When does the trust launch?
A.Intermediary offer closes on 5pm on 5th October
Q. When would you be expected to be “fully invested”. How long after float?
A. 1 month, but we expect to be 90% uninvested in the first week given a median cap of £1.5-2bn
Q. Do any of the big funds hold your fund?
A. We are marketing to larger investors at the moment and that bookbuild closes on Wednesday 7th October
Q. How will you be positioned visa a vis Brexit and possible outcomes?
A. We feel the 3 pillars, British Global Leaders, British Recovery and British Technology gives a good balanced portfolio to cope with continued market volatility
Q. Could you quickly remind us on P3M or was it P4M?
A. P3M – we seek companies that can exhibit a differentiated Product, market leadership of their niche, ability to grow the margin and generate cash and management who own stock and understand shareholder value.
Q. You have mentioned you have invested £1 million is that each?
A. Paul, John, Johnnie, and the team are investing about £800k of our own money and the board is doing c£170k at the IPO. There are no options.
Q. Fees?
A. The AMC is 0.65% on assets up to £150m market cap and 0.60% thereafter
John launched Tellworth Investments, with Paul Marriage, in October 2017. John joined Cazenove Capital in 2010, moving to Schroders in 2013 after the acquisition of Cazenove. Prior to this, John worked at UBS and Investec Bank and before this, he worked at PriceWaterhouseCoopers where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He has over 16 years of investment experience. John graduated from Loughborough University with a degree in Economics and Accountancy.
Paul launched Tellworth Investments, with John Warren, in October 2017. Paul worked at Cazenove Capital from 2005 and then became Head of UK Dynamic Equities at Schroders in 2013 after the acquisition of Cazenove. During this time Paul managed one of the most successful UK Smaller Companies Funds – returning investors 430% vs the index return of 113% from Jan 2016 to July 2017. Prior to this, Paul was Head of UK Small Cap investments at Insight Investments and an analyst at GH Asset Management. He has over 20 years of investment experience. Paul graduated from University College, Oxford University with a degree in Modern History.
Our special guests will be Paul Marriage and John Warren the highly respected fund managers. They are about to launch an Investment Trust called the Tellworth British Growth and Recovery Trust. It is going to be a concentrated portfolio of best ideas from Tellworth across the market cap spectrum but focused on the best British companies – across three pillars; British Global Market Leaders, British Tech and British Recovery. They will be presenting on this and conducting a Q&A session for all of you to join on the evening.
Paul and John have been top rated small cap fund managers for many years; working at Cazenove, Schroders and now running their own boutique fund management company named Tellworth. They returned over 400% vs 114% against the benchmark, in the 11 years they ran their Dynamic UK Small cap fund which is staggering out performance. Their style is highly likely to resonate with the vast majority of our Mello investors. Just like me, they tend to avoid biotechs, oil and gas stocks and highly speculative situations and strongly believe in meeting management teams and focus on companies with four key factors: Differentiated products; that are market leaders; with good and growing margins; and strong, incentivised management teams. They also throw in the odd turnaround play too.
The Tellworth British Recovery & Growth Trust PLC has commenced its initial public offering on 16 September 2020 – with a launch date set for 7 October 2020. The company will aim to support UK businesses with equity, help UK employers and promote UK technology and innovation. The portfolio will be relatively concentrated, consisting of approximately 35 to 45 investments, and will represent the team’s highest conviction ideas across the UK market capitalisation spectrum using three pillars: British Global Leaders, British Recovery and British Technology. Join us on Monday 28th September to find out more! Click here for the prospectus and key information documents.
Company update
We have a company update from SimplyBiz Plc. which is a company that many of you have followed since their first appearance at Mello 2018 in Derby over two years ago. There will also be a Q&A session after that presentation.
The SimplyBiz Group provides essential support services, software and data that enable professional financial advisers, financial intermediaries and product providers to deliver better outcomes for their customers.
We support 3,700 intermediary firms with regulatory and business support in addition to the 1,900 customer firms – and 8,500 individual advisers – using our fintech platform whilst providing essential product distribution support to over 400 financial institutions.
Our in-depth understanding of the changing regulatory landscape, and deep insights into the needs of customers, advisers and product providers, enable us to add unique value to the retail financial services sector.
The Group was formed in 2002 and, through organic growth and acquisition, rapidly grew to become the UK’s largest provider of outsourced regulatory and business support to financial advisers; a position we still hold today.
During that time, we created and launched innovative solutions for the lending and credit markets, launched our own asset management company and entered the legal and surveying markets and are prominent each of those markets today.
In 2019, we made our largest acquisition to date as we added Defaqto to our Group of companies. Defaqto has been a leading research and FinTech provider for over 20 years and its brand is well known and respected amongst advisers, providers and consumers alike.
Although our heritage can be traced back to Yorkshire, we now operate from eight locations across the UK, employing over 520 dedicated professionals, supporting over 10,000 financial professionals and working with over 250 leading providers of financial products.
Matt joined SimplyBiz at its inception in 2002 as Marketing Director and was appointed Joint Managing Director of the Group in May 2010.
He now serves as Joint CEO of The SimplyBiz Group, responsible for the sales and marketing activities of the Group as well as key strategic relationships with both insurance and investment companies.
Matt runs several of the key subsidiaries within the business including SimplyBiz Services, SimplyBiz Mortgages, Gateway Surveyors, NMBA and SimplyBiz Support. Matt is also Chairman of Zest, the Group’s provider of SAAS technology for the auto enrolment and flexible benefits market.
Previous employment includes GE Capital, Misys and DBS Financial Management.
Neil joined SimplyBiz in 2003 as a consultant before being appointed Operations Director in 2004. From here, he led the acquisition of Compliance First, subsequently becoming the Managing Director of that business in 2007, a role he held until 2010 when he was appointed Joint Managing Director of the SimplyBiz Group.
Now Joint CEO of the Group, Neil has executive responsibility for compliance, operations and finance for The SimplyBiz Group. He is also Chairman of Defaqto.
Neil is passionate about bringing systems and technology to advisers, to enable them to deliver even more to clients, and is an advocate of advisers creating a ‘supply chain’ around their business and service.
Gareth joined SimplyBiz in 2016 as the Group Financial Controller, managing the finances of the Group, including key financial reporting, before becoming Group Finance Director in 2018. Prior to joining SimplyBiz, Gareth was Head of Financial Reporting at Pace plc, a FTSE 250 listed business, with annual turnover of $2.6bn. During his 5 years at Pace, Gareth built his experience of working in a listed environment, within a business that recovered from a difficult period, to its ultimate sale to a US Global Technology giant in January 2016.
Gareth spent 9 years at PwC, where he trained as a Chartered Accountant of the ICAEW. While at PwC, Gareth managed audit and transaction engagements for listed, private equity and private clients across a broad range of sizes and industries, giving him a breadth of knowledge and experience.
Additionally, in our first virtual Mello Monday we will have several shorter length sessions, an introduction to which can be found below. These may become a running theme for our future Mello evenings but that will depend on you, our Mello community, to decide which features you like most or to suggest other themed sessions that you think are valuable and educational.
What is new? Investor tools, strategies, and ideas
In our What’s new? session we will feature investor tools, market strategies and new investment ideas put forward by any of our Mello members.
This Monday, Karin Schulte introduces the autumns season of ShareSoc Masterclasses which will include remuneration, private equity, short selling and ESG.
Karin has worked in global logistics, investment banking and private equity in Asia for a total of 25 years based in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. Karin is currently based in the UK and actively invests in listed and unlisted companies. Karin has extensive experience also in the not-for-profit sector both in the UK and internationally. Karin has a portfolio of roles and has a particular interest in the next generation of leaders.
MelloBASH (Buy, Avoid, Sell or Hold?)
In the MelloBASH this month, we will have the ever popular John Warren, Kevin Taylor, Paul Scott, Alan Charlton and Leon Boros giving their verdicts together with the audience on listed companies selected by you…our Mello delegates. Companies to be analysed this Monday include SCS, SAGA Group, Spectra Systems, SuperDry, Supply@me Capital and Surface Transforms. The panel members will change each month. Donations will be made to their chosen charities to show our appreciation of their excellent research and diligent coverage of the selected companies. Companies covered so far by our BASH panels include BOO, BUR, GAW, RBG, PLUS, NRR, AVCT & QUIZ. Do let us know which companies you’d like analysed in future Mello Monday BASH panels.
John launched Tellworth Investments, with Paul Marriage, in October 2017. John joined Cazenove Capital in 2010, moving to Schroders in 2013 after the acquisition of Cazenove. Prior to this, John worked at UBS and Investec Bank and before this, he worked at PriceWaterhouseCoopers where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He has over 16 years of investment experience. John graduated from Loughborough University with a degree in Economics and Accountancy.
Leon is a recently retired professional investor. Prior to his retirement he was founder and managing director of Equity Strategies, a boutique corporate finance firm. Leon started his career at EY where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant.
Leon has been investing since his late teens. In 1993 he opened his first PEP and has since achieved annualised returns of 18.42% (to Dec 2019).
Leon was previously a non-executive director of ShareSoc. Twitter: Leon Boros @Boros10
I am a Full Time Professional Investor, having enjoyed a 30 year career working the Retail Industry, and been a Director of many well know High Street names. I have been fortunate to work directly for some of the greatest Retailers of the last generation, including Lord Kirkham, Sir Philip Green (interesting experience!!) and Sir Stuart Rose. Fortunate to have learned from some of the very best. I post occasionally on message boards as “Simso”…going right back to PaulyPiliots Pub and the old Motley Fool days! Current investment strategy is specifically focussed on stocks which benefit from the current environment.”
I trained as an accountant with a Top 5 firm, but that was so boring that I spent too much time in the 1990s being a disco bunny, and busting moves on the dancefloor, and chilling out with mates back at either my house or theirs, and having a lot of fun!
Then spent 8 years as FD for a ladieswear retail chain called “Pilot”, leaving on great terms in 2002 – having been a key player in growing the business 10 fold. If the truth be told, I partied pretty hard at the weekends too, so bank reconciliations on Monday mornings were more luck than judgement!! But they were always correct.
I got bored with that and decided to become a professional small caps investor in 2002. I made millions, but got too cocky, and lost the lot in 2008, due to excessive gearing. A miserable, wilderness period occurred from 2008-2012.
Since then, the sun has begun to shine again! I am now utterly briliant again, and immerse myself in small caps, and am a walking encyclopedia on the subject. I love writing a daily report for Stockopedia.com on most weekday mornings, constantly researching daily results & trading updates for small caps. Cheese!
Kevin began his City career 27 years ago, training as an actuary with a focus on defined benefit pension schemes. In 1997 he moved over to Investment Banking and joined a structured finance team working on complex projects and debt finance for large corporates. During those 27 years of financial markets experience Kevin has been a keen small cap investor looking after his family’s portfolios and trading on both the long and the short side of markets. Kevin is one of the more sceptical member of our panel and likes to see proof that demonstrate management’s claims before investing in a management team.
Analyst insider
@StockwatchUK will host a session on company results and analyst meetings. Our ‘Insider’ will discuss the companies that have held analyst meetings during September and the nuggets that were revealed.
Stockwatch UK is an independent reporter of UK PLC news with a focus on mid & small cap stocks, including funds. The author has 30 years of City experience and contacts. After attending group corporate meetings (or a 121) bullet comments are published on the Stockwatch UK twitter page with detailed meeting commentary emailed to the subscriber base later on. The readership is a mixture of institutional, national wealth managers and private client investors.
QQ – Quickfire Questions
Rebecca, aka Aston Girl, and Leo have agreed to answer some investor focused questions from the Mello audience and give their candid answers in Quickfire Questions.
Specialist insights
Specialist Insights this month will come from Steve Clapham on accounting red flags and investing top tips from his Behind the Balance Sheet training courses. Steve runs a Forensic Accounting Course for some of the biggest investment institutions and hedge funds and he is a former partner and head of research at two multi-billion hedge funds himself, so he knows what he is talking about. Expect some practical tips which you can immediately put into practice and help avoid losers (accounting red flags) and identify winners (investing tips). You can read more about Steve and check out his blog on his website.
Behind the Balance Sheet is an investment research consultancy which creates bespoke research for large institutional investors and produces training programmes for their analysts and portfolio managers. The firm was founded in 2012 by Steve Clapham, who has 30 years of experience analysing and investing in equities. He spent some 20 years as a rated sell-side equity analyst before becoming a partner of a multi billion hedge fund in London in 2005.