Monday 19th July 2021, 5.30pm – 9.30pm
Programme for the evening
5.30 pm Mello welcome and news
5.35 pm Ed Croft’s half year review of the Stockopedia Stock Picking Challenge 2021
6.00 pm Minerva Analytics – Active investor, Active Owner
6.15 pm Company presentation by CPP Group (CPP)
6.45 pm Investor Book review by Stephen English
7.00 pm Company presentation by Galliford Try (GFRD)
7.30 pm VectorVest – Safe and consistent portfolio growth
7.45 pm Company presentation by Artisanal Spirits Company (ART)
8.25 pm David Stredder interviews Clem Chambers of ADVFN
8.45 pm The Mello BASH with Kevin Taylor, Stephen English and Jack Brumby covering Jarvis Securities (JIM) and RGBP
Stockopedia’s top picks for 2021
Ed will update us on Stockopedia’s Stock Picking Challenge 2021 and review the Leaderboard at the halfway stage. This is an event that generates the most brilliant set of community picked, conviction stock ideas. Will your stock picks for 2021 match with those of the Stockopedia community? Perhaps Boohoo, Sylvania Platinum, Volex or Apple are on the list? Tune in on Monday to find out.
Last year’s challenge drew 2,153 entrants and this year we have 3000+ entrants. This year’s entrants have the chance to win a trip to New York for Two and other prizes by picking the top performing set of 5 stocks in 2021.
Edward Croft is co-founder and CEO of Stockopedia.com. He previously worked as a wealth manager at Goldman Sachs and for a family office before founding Stockopedia. Ed graduated from Oxford University with first-class honours in Chemistry, is a Chartered Financial Analyst and Zend-Certified PHP Engineer.
Book review by Stephen English
In the first of a series of investment based Book reviews, fund manager Stephen English will review Dead Companies Walking by Scott Fearon and Big Money Thinks Small by Joel Tillinghast.
If you have a book you would like to review, please contact Georgina at georgina@melloevents.com.
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.
Company Presentation – Artisanal Spirits Company
Artisanal Spirits Company (LON: ART) is based in Edinburgh. It owns The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) which was established in 1983 and currently has a growing worldwide membership of 28,000 paying subscribers.
Harnessing the experience of some of the most knowledgeable stewards in the industry, SMWS provides members with inspiring experiences, content and exclusive access to a vast and unique range of outstanding single cask Scotch malt whiskies and other craft spirits, sourced from over 100 distilleries in 20 countries and expertly curated with diligence and care. In 2020 over 85% of Group revenue was generated online, whilst 9% was generated through SMWS’s four UK venues.
Having initially proven its premium experience model in the UK, SMWS is now able to offer its unrivalled breadth of distinguished flavours to an expanding international market, with 69% of 2020 sales from outside the UK. SMWS has a growing presence in the key international whisky markets of UK, China, USA and Europe.
ASC is building a portfolio of premium brands that bring together some of the world’s best producers with a growing movement of discerning consumers by curating unrivalled collections of craft spirits.
David Ridley, Executive Managing Director
David has been Managing Director of the Company since March 2017, leading the business through revenue growth of 95 per cent. between FY16 and FY19.
David has worked in the international wines and spirits industry for 21 years and has experience across brand development, commercial and distribution management. He has previously held senior general management and business development roles globally, including at Moet Hennessy, where he was Managing Director of MH Vietnam for three years and Business Development Director for Asia Pacific, Africa, Middle East & the Americas for five years with Glenmorangie/Ardbeg single Malt Scotch whisky, where he also worked in Global Travel Retail.
David is a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Distillers.
Andrew Dane, Executive Finance Director
Andrew has been Finance Director of the Company since August 2020.
Andrew previously worked for eight years at KPMG transaction services in London, Edinburgh and Toronto. During this time he worked on over 100 transactions covering multiple sectors, business sizes and geographies, including five Scottish capital markets transactions.
Prior to joining the Company, Andrew was the Finance Director at Argent Energy, the high growth UK biodiesel producer, from 2014 to 2020. He helped increase the size of Argent Energy’s business from around 65 employees and approximately £50 million turnover in 2014 (following their 2013 acquisition by Swire) to around 350 staff and approximately £350 million turnover in 2020.
Interview with Clem Chambers, ADVFN
ADVFN is an award-winning global stocks, shares and crypto information website providing market-leading financial tools and data to private investors around the world.
Offering real-time share prices, news feeds, charting, portfolio management, monitor lists, financials (fundamentals), data from global stock exchanges, Level 2 and some of the most active financial bulletin boards in the world (and much more), the site is the destination of choice for day traders and retail investors.
Established in the last quarter of 1999, ADVFN (LSE:AFN) was floated on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market in March 2000. The site currently has approximately 36 million users worldwide and a billion page impressions a year. On July 5th, 2021, in a trading update, the Company announced its intention to commence paying dividends.
Originally a UK-based site, the company currently operates in the US, UK, Brazil, Japan and Dubai.
ADVFN has a joint venture in Brazil, a country in which ADVFN has a geographic and language targeted website. This is in addition to its US, French, German, Italian, Canadian, Japanese, Indian, Mexican and Filipino ADVFN financial sites.
In September 2006 ADVFN acquired InvestorsHub.com, a leading online investment community website in the North American market. ADVFN bought AllIPO, an online IPO trading platform, as well as stock brokerages TSCTrade and Throgmorton Street Capital in July 2009.
Clem Chambers is a technology entrepreneur and CEO and co-founder of ADVFN plc, which operates global stocks, shares and cryptocurrency website ADVFN.com. He is also co-founder and CEO of the UK’s blockchain research and development incubator Online Blockchain plc. Chambers has been involved in the software industry for approximately 40 years as a pioneer of computer games, massively multiplayer games, multimedia and the internet.
Chambers became CEO of ADVFN in 2002 and is credited with steering the company from likely dot.com failure to a thriving and profitable market leader; the ADVFN website boasts 36 million users with large investor communities in the US, UK, Brazil and Italy, and a wide global userbase.
Clem is also an award-winning columnist, author and financial commentator widely known for his television appearances and columns for Forbes, Seeking Alpha and IET.
Company Presentation – Galliford Try plc
Galliford Try is one of the UK’s leading construction groups, working to improve the UK’s built environment, delivering positive, lasting change for the communities we work in on behalf of our clients.
Our business operates mainly under the Galliford Try and Morrison Construction brands, focusing on areas where we have core and proven strengths, namely in Building, Highways and Environment. We see long-term growth and appropriate margins in these markets.
Our company is founded on our values of excellence, passion, integrity and collaboration, and our vision is to be a people-orientated, progressive business, driven by our values to deliver lasting change for our stakeholders and the communities we work in.
Andrew Duxbury – Finance Director
Andrew Duxbury was appointed Group Finance Director in March 2019. Andrew joined Galliford Try in March 2012 as Group Financial Controller and from 2016, held a number of operational finance roles, including Finance Director of Linden Homes. Andrew is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and, prior to joining Galliford Try, he worked for PwC.
Company Presentation – CPP Group
CPP Group takes away many of the stresses and strains of daily life for millions of people across the globe. In collaboration with selected partners in each country in which the Group operates, it develops, aggregates, offers and supports a range of personal protection and insurance products, which are sold alongside, or packaged with, the core product offerings of the Group’s partners. CPP is listed on AIM, operated by the London Stock Exchange.
Jason Walsh, CEO
CPP CEO Jason Walsh held a number of senior management and executive roles at CPP between 2002 and 2014, including international development and Group transformation.
His last CPP role was as UK Managing Director responsible for the Group’s insurance businesses. Here he held the senior approved persons position for both Card Protection Plan Ltd and Homecare Insurance Ltd.
More recently, Jason spent almost two years at Ernst & Young within their Financial Services Advisory practice, returning to CPP in May 2016 as CEO.
Oliver Laird, CFO
A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, Oliver has more than 15 years’ experience in senior finance roles in regulated financial services businesses, including as CFO of First Direct Bank and Finance Director of the Co-operative Insurance Division.
Oliver is a Non-Executive Trustee of the Leeds University Union and Chair of the Audit Committee at St Anne’s Community Services. Oliver has been CFO of CPP since June 2017.
VectorVest – Safe and Consistent Portfolio Growth
About VectorVest
VectorVest is the only stock analysis and portfolio management system that analyzes, ranks and graphs over 16,500 stocks each day for value, safety and timing and gives a clear buy, sell or hold rating on every stock every day. VectorVest now comes complete with the UK, USA, CA, AU and all of Europe databases.
VectorVest gives you ANSWERS, not just data. What to buy. What to sell. Most importantly, WHEN. Unbiased, independent answers. Investment guidance provided at a glance or through your own analysis.
Minerva Analytics – Active Investor, Active Owner
Sarah Wilson is the founder and CEO of Minerva Analytics, the UK’s independent ESG research and proxy voting agency. Over the past 30 years Sarah has been closely involved in the development of innovation in the independent research industry, including the creation of the first electronic proxy voting message standards and the development of Europe’s premier database of objective governance profiles of 95% of the worlds companies by value. Minerva’s research and data are widely used by global regulators, asset owners, asset managers and academics to support their investigation into the impact of ESG developments.
Minerva empowers professional investors with the essential tools and critical data to make informed, sustainable stewardship and proxy voting decisions.
Our comprehensive and tightly-integrated solutions support better stewardship with high quality and material ESG data; independent and objective research; the latest technology; and secure, confidential vote administration.
Minerva’s agile and responsive service is founded on principles of bespoke research, tailored voting guidance and highly customizable sustainability data to support modern stewardship strategies.
Advanced, scalable VoteTech to protect shareholder rights, bespoke policies to support split voting
Tailored ESG and Sustainability data sets for custom index solutions in partnership with Solactive
Objective, independent research and data to identify key sustainability governance risks and opportunities
The Mello BASH (Buy, Avoid, Sell & Hold)
The MelloBASH features a mix of Fund Managers and Private Investors including Kevin Taylor, Edward Roskill and Jack Brumby. They will be giving their verdicts together with the audience on listed companies selected by you…our Mello delegates. Donations will be made to their chosen charities to show our appreciation of their excellent research and diligent coverage of the selected companies. Do let us know which companies you’d like analysed in future MelloMonday BASH panels by emailing georgina@melloevents.com.
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.
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.
I’m looking for compounding investments
I started off in Leisure – a part of the market I still love, but an area where stocks can appear “cheap” for years without going anywhere. It made me realise that valuation is only one part of the puzzle.
Now I sift through a much broader universe of stocks in search of small, high quality operators with large addressable markets, strong and maintainable margins, and clear share price catalysts.
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