Christmas Special
MelloMonday, 13th December 2021, 5pm
Christmas Special Programme
5.00 pm Mello Christmas welcome with Karin Schulte, a ShareSoc Director
5.05 pm Company presentation by Appreciate Group
5.45 pm Company presentation by Smiths News
6.15 pm David interviews Sir Martin Sorrell
6.50 pm Company presentation by Jupiter Green Investment Trust Plc
7.30 pm David interviews Elizabeth Pearson on The Investment Journey
7.40 pm Company presentation by Wentworth Resources plc
8.10 pm Mark Simpson presents ‘When is a pension not a benefit?’
8.20 pm Company presentation by Midatech
9.00 pm Fund Manager Christmas Panel with Stephen English, Chris Boxall, Paul Jourdan and Rosemary Banyard
Interview with Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman, S4 Capital plc
Sir Martin Sorrell is Executive Chairman of S4 Capital plc, which is building a purely digital advertising and marketing services business for global, multinational, regional, local clients and millennial-driven influencer brands.
Sir Martin was CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million “shell” company in 1985 into the world’s largest advertising and marketing services company. When Sir Martin left in April 2018, WPP had a market capitalisation of over £16 billion, revenues of over £15 billion, profits of approximately £2 billion and over 200,000 people in 113 countries. Prior to that, Sir Martin was Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi plc for 9 years and worked for James Gulliver, Mark McCormack and Glendinning Associates before that.
S4 Capital plc merged with MediaMonks, its content practice, in July 2018 and MightyHive, its programmatic practice, in December 2018 and has added eight further content programmatic and data companies to both practices in 2019 and one in 2020.
It is listed on the London Stock Exchange under SFOR.L and after a little over one year, S4 Capital plc has over 2400 people in 30 countries, with a market capitalization of over $1.2 billion.
Sir Martin supports a number of leading business schools and universities, including his alma maters, Harvard Business School and Cambridge University and a number of charities, including his family foundation
Sir Martin Sorrell
Smiths News plc is the UK’s largest newspaper and magazine wholesaler, with an approximate 55% market share. For over 200 years, it has been an essential link in one of the world’s fastest supply chains, now distributing newspapers and magazines on behalf of the major national and regional publishers to approximately 24,000 customers across England and Wales on a daily basis.
With ancillary businesses to enhance its core offer – including DMD, which supplies airlines and travel points, and Instore, which offers field marketing services to retailers and suppliers across the UK – Smiths News provides a comprehensive supply chain solution in a uniquely specialised market. Its scale and expertise, combined with intelligent logistics systems, ensures it provides the best and widest range of services for both publishers and retailers.
Simon Gage, Commercial Director
Simon Gage joined the company in 1986 as a management trainee, and has subsequently held a wide variety of roles in the company. Following the demerger in 2006, Simon was made Magazine Sales Director of Smiths News in 2008 and then in 2012, Simon became Sales Director.
In 2015, Simon was appointed Publisher and Retailer Services Director and became Commercial Director in 2020. He’s responsible for the service offer to our existing clients and managing the trading relationships, overseeing the publisher and retailer account management teams, including the independent retail sector, and has accountability for our sales centre in Worcester. Simon also oversees our InStore Field Marketing business.
Paul Baker, Chief Financial Officer
Paul Baker joined Smiths News on 4 October 2021 following his appointment of Chief Financial Officer. He brings with him a track record of delivering strategic and operational change in fast moving environments. As a highly experienced senior executive, with extensive and relevant financial and business transformation experience, Paul most recently held the position of Integration Director at Compass Group plc. Prior to that, he held various regional and divisional Finance Director roles within each of Compass Group, Iglo Group/ Birds Eye Limited and Cadbury Schweppes PLC.
Elizabeth is the founder of Simple Successful Stocks. She started investing while working as an architect, thinking there had to be a better and more enjoyable way of earning a living! She learnt to be an active investor from her Dad, as a way of sharing something he was passionate about.
She now works as a financial educator, helping people and in particular women, who want to understand money and get it working for them, yet struggle to know where to start and who to trust. She gives them the knowledge and confidence to invest themselves in the stock market and take charge of their financial future. She is particularly passionate about investing with planetary awareness.
Elizabeth gives talks, one to one tuition and runs taster classes (Girls Just Want to Have Green Funds!) to make investing simple, sparkly and jargon free.
Elizabeth Pearson
Midatech is a drug delivery technology company focused on improving the bio-delivery and biodistribution of medicines.
The Company has developed three in-house technology platforms, each with its own unique mechanism to improve delivery of medication to sites of disease.
All of the Company’s technologies have successfully entered human use in the clinic, providing important validation of the potential for each platform:
- Q-Sphera platform: a disruptive micro-technology used for sustained release to prolong and control the release of therapeutics over an extended period of time (from weeks to months).
- MidaSolve platform: an innovative nanotechnology used to dissolve insoluble drugs so that they can be administered in liquid form directly and locally into tumours.
- MidaCore platform: a leading-edge ano-technology used for targeting medications to sites of disease.
Stephen Stamp CEO / CFO
Mr. Stamp is an experienced public company CFO and has held senior positions in a number of significant healthcare companies including as Group Finance Director of Shire plc, Chief Operating Officer of Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals Inc and most recently with AIM quoted Ergomed plc, where he served initially as CFO before becoming CEO. Mr Stamp qualified as a Chartered Accountant at KPMG and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Jupiter is a specialist, high conviction, active asset manager. We exist to help our clients achieve their long-term investment objectives. From our origins in 1985, Jupiter now offers a range of actively managed strategies available to UK and international clients including equities, fixed income, multi-asset and alternatives. Jupiter is a constituent member of the FTSE 250 Index, and has assets under management of £60.7bn /$81.8bn /€70.7bn as at 30/09/2021.
Independence of thought and individual accountability define us. Our fund managers follow their convictions and seek those investment opportunities that they believe will ensure the best outcome for our clients. They do this through fundamental analysis and research, a clear investment process and risk management framework, with a focus on good stewardship.
https://www.jupiteram.com/uk/en/professional/
Jon Wallace, Fund Manager, Environmental Solutions
Jon is the Fund Manager of Jupiter’s Environmental Solutions funds with Rhys Petheram. He joined Jupiter in July 2009. Before joining Jupiter, Jon worked at Forum for the Future, a non-profit organisation that works in partnership with business, government and civil society to accelerate the shift toward a sustainable future. He began his investment career in 2009. Jon has a BA in Economics and History and an MSc in Environmental Technology.
Wentworth Resources plc (AIM-listed: WEN) is a leading, domestic natural gas producer in Tanzania with a core producing asset at Mnazi Bay in the onshore Rovuma Basin in Southern Tanzania. The demand base in-country is growing and with an ambitious universal energy access target set by the Government for 2030, Wentworth has a vital role to play in driving up access by ensuring a reliable, affordable and growing supply of natural gas into the local market.
Following a new dividend policy launched in 2019, Wentworth is committed to responsible growth that maintains returns for shareholders. With revenues underpinned by long-term fixed price contracts, no debt and a limited work programme, Wentworth represents a resilient and sustainable investment opportunity for the near and longer-term.
Katherine Roe, CEO
Katherine has over 20 years of senior corporate and capital markets experience. Having worked as Chief Financial Officer for Wentworth following her role as Vice President Corporate Development & Investor Relations in 2014 – Katherine was appointed as CEO in January 2020. Prior to Wentworth, Katherine spent 11 years at Panmure Gordon & Co having moved from Morgan Stanley’s investment banking division. As well as our CEO, Katherine is an independent Non-Executive Director of ITM Power PLC and Longboat Energy PLC.
Company Presentation – Appreciate Group plc
Appreciate Group is one of the UK’s leading gifting, pre-payment and engagement companies, and experts at creating joyful experiences and connecting people to the things in life they enjoy the most. Everything Appreciate Group does is focused on creating more joy in the world, and it is proud to be trusted to help its customers create moments they can treasure and remember, whether they are giving, celebrating or rewarding.
Appreciate Group is a financial services business with a wide portfolio of brands which provide solutions for its consumer and business customers. Its consumer-facing brands meet a range of prepayment and gifting needs, while its business products help corporate customers reward and recognise their employees and clients. Appreciate Group is home to many of the country’s most-loved gifting, pre-payment and engagement solutions including Park Christmas Savings, highstreetvouchers.com and Love2shop, and we are fast-becoming the home of digital innovation in gifting. Whether it’s saving towards the perfect family Christmas or celebrating with gift cards and vouchers, we create and supply products that millions of people trust when it comes to giving and receiving with family, friends or colleagues.
Park Christmas Savings: As the UK’s largest family Christmas savings club, Park Christmas Savings has helped over 2.7 million families budget for Christmas on a short-term or year-round basis. Love2shop: Love2shop offers gift cards and gift vouchers available to spend at stores and attractions across the UK. They are also used through our Love2shop Business Services providing corporate partners with incentives and rewards for their employees and clients. Appreciate Group plc’s shares are traded on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange. The Park Prepayments Protection Trust is designed to increase protection for customers’ prepayments. The Trust has three directors, two of whom are independent of Appreciate. Details of the trust are set out here: https://www.getpark.co.uk/CORPORATE/declaration.pdf
Tim Clancy, Chief Financial Officer
Tim was appointed to the Board on 28 August 2018 and is the CFO. He is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and joined the group from Assurant Europe where he was CFO. Assurant Europe is the European subsidiary of Assurant Inc the US-listed global insurance provider. His previous roles include, from 2011 to 2013, Finance Director of Lifestyle Services Group, an insurance administrator and outsourcing provider and, from 2009 to 2011, Commercial Finance Director of Shop Direct Group. Before then he spent over 10 years in the travel industry in many finance and general management roles including Finance Director of Airtours and Managing Director of Going Places.
Ian O’Doherty, Chief Executive Officer
Ian was appointed to the Board and became CEO on 1 February 2018. He has a strong background in financial services, specifically in banking, payments and card services, having worked at MBNA for 26 years, most recently as Chairman and CEO of MBNA Limited in the UK, a position he held from 2008 to 2017. From 2015 to 2017, Ian was Deputy Chair of the UK Cards Association, having been a board member since 2008, and he was a member of the Interim Main Board of UK Finance (New Trade Association) from 2016 to 2017. He has an MBA from Carroll Graduate School of Management, Boston College, USA, and is a fellow of the Institute of Bankers in Ireland. He is Chairman of Chester Race Company Limited and is a Governor on the Board of the King’s School, Chester.
Fund Manager Panel; Best and Worst of 2021 with Stephen English, Chris Boxal, Paul Jourdan from Amati and Rosemary Banyard from Downing
With a background in art (good drawer/awful painter) and an interest in psychology Stephen believes that small-cap investment is more art than science. An avid student of the market, he has authored his own 12-page investment philosophy which was well received by professional and retail readers alike. When it comes to the stockmarket, Stephen says ‘when you find the key, they change the lock’ which drives a zeal for continual improvement.
Quality investing to Stephen is as much, if not more so, about the management of a business, and he aligns the portfolios to founders who maintain the owners’ eye and have a superior problem solving ability over peers with no alignment of interest. A strong culture is vital; after all ‘character is destiny’.
With a fast-growing reputation as an independent thinker, his musings are regularly featured in the press, including What Investment, Professional Advisorand MoneyWeek.
Stephen is a CFA Charterholder, a devoted Warrington Rugby League fan and a wide-ranging reader.
Dr Paul Jourdan co-founded Amati Global Investors following the management buyout of Noble Fund Managers from Noble Group in January 2010, having joined Noble in 2007 as Head of Equities. His fund management career began in 1998 with Stewart Ivory, where he gained experience in UK, emerging market, and global equities. In 2000, Stewart Ivory was taken over by First State and Paul became manager of what is now TB Amati UK Smaller Companies Fund. In 2004, he was appointed Head of UK Equities at First State. In early 2005, he launched Amati VCT plc and he also manages Amati VCT 2 after the investment management contract moved to Amati Global Investors in 2010 (In 2018 Amati VCT merged into Amati VCT 2 which was then renamed Amati AIM VCT). Prior to 1998, Paul worked as a professional violinist, including a four-year period with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He currently serves as a Director of Sistema Scotland and Clean Trade, both of which are UK registered charities.
Established in 2004 by Chris Boxall and Stephen Drabwell, Fundamental Asset Management is an independent, owner managed, investment management firm which has delivered outstanding investment performance through focusing on direct equity investment, notably in AIM.
Fundamental undertakes its own in-depth research, seeking out the best investment opportunities across UK and international stock markets.
The firm has an unrivalled knowledge of AIM and has successfully provided AIM for Inheritance Tax planning and General Portfolio Management to private investors, trusts and institutions for more than 17 years.
In support of direct equity investment, and with a notable focus on AIM, in 2006 Chris also established Investor’s Champion. This online investment magazine is jam-packed with high quality content covering companies, funds, economics and global events – all to help you make your money go further.
Investor’s Champion was setup to introduce readers to those lesser known, smaller quoted companies. Since then, the website’s regular blogs and research have uncovered some outstanding small company success stories (and helped its readers avoid numerous disasters).
Rosemary Banyard began her career with James Capel & Co where she was a senior investment analyst for 12 years before becoming a fund manager at AIB Govett. She rose to prominence and developed a reputation as one of the leading female fund managers in the UK after she joined Schroders in 1997. For almost 20 years she was known for running the acclaimed Schroder UK Smaller Companies Fund with Andy Brough, and was for many years lead manager of the award-winning Schroder Mid Cap Fund PLC as well as heading up several other segregated UK equity mandates, managing total assets of circa £1 billion.
In 2016 she joined Sanford DeLand to launch and manage the Free Spirit Fund. The Schroder UK Mid Cap trust returned 17%* p.a. while she was manager and in her two and a half years managing money at Sanford DeLand the Free Spirit Fund returned 31%**, placing it in the top decile of the IA UK All Companies sector. She joined Downing in March 2020 to launch the VT Downing Unique Opportunities Fund.
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