MelloMonday, 11th November 2024, 5pm - 8.30pm
Programme
5pm Interview with Stephen Yiu of WS Blue Whale Growth Fund
5:35pm Company presentation by Smiths News
6:05pm Company presentation by Rockwood Strategic
6:40pm Educational presentation
6:55pm BASH (Buy, Avoid, Sell, Hold) panel featuring Paul Scott (HTG) and Damian Cannon (Team17)
Interview with Stephen Yiu, Lead Manager of the WS Blue Whale Growth Fund
Stephen is the Lead Manager of the WS Blue Whale Growth Fund. Having started his working life in the Hargreaves Lansdown investment team, Stephen left the company in 2007 to pursue his interest in asset management. Working at New Star (now Janus Henderson), Artemis with Tim Steer, and most recently under Martin Taylor and Nick Barnes at Nevsky Capital, Stephen has gained broad and varied experience within the investment industry over the past 20 years. Previous funds he has directly managed or co-managed included – Citywire’s AA-rated Artemis UK Growth Fund (now Artemis UK Select Fund), Artemis Pan-European Hedge Fund (nominated for EuroHedge Awards 2010) and New Star UK Gemini Hedge Fund (nominated for EuroHedge Awards 2007). Stephen co-founded Blue Whale Capital in 2016, with backing from Peter Hargreaves, co-founder of Hargreaves Lansdown.
Chief Investment Officer at Blue Whale Capital and Lead Manager of the WS Blue Whale Growth Fund.
Blue Whale Capital is a London-based boutique asset management firm. Co-founded by Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Yiu, the firm is committed to delivering consistent, significant outperformance. The WS Blue Whale Growth Fund, the firm’s flagship strategy, launched in September 2017. It is a long-only global equity fund, focusing on large-cap stocks in developed markets. The investment team adopts a high-conviction, valuation-driven approach to construct a concentrated portfolio of high-quality businesses.
Company presentation by Richard Staveley, Fund Manager at Rockwood Strategic Plc
Richard Staveley is both a qualified accountant (PWC) and Chartered Financial Analyst and has over 22 years of active lead fund manager responsibility in UK small cap equities. He was a co-Founder of River & Mercantile Plc and Head of Small Companies at both Société Générale Asset Management and Majedie Asset Management. Richard was appointed to lead the strategy, Rockwood Strategic Plc, in September 2019, won the PLC Awards Fund Manager of the Year in 2022 and was made a Partner of Harwood Capital LLP in June 2023. He sits on the Boards of Centaur Media Plc and Pressure Technologies Plc.
Rockwood Strategic Plc is an Investment Trust with a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange. It invests in a focused portfolio of smaller UK public companies under £250 million market capitalisation, with many under £150m. The differentiated strategy identifies undervalued shares where the potential exists to improve returns and where the company is benefitting, or will benefit from, operational, strategic or management changes. These unlock, create or realise shareheolder value for investors. The investment team is supported by an Advisory Group with over 200 years combined investing experience and the insight and expertise at Harwood Capital with their active Private Equity, Debt and Property teams. The Fund has the best Net Asset Value returns in the Association of Investment Companies small companies sector over the last 1, 3 and 5 years to September 2023. The investment team ‘constructively engage’ with stakeholders, often secure Board seats and have the majority of the capital in the top ten holdings. The style of investing has a strong value and recovery bias with a focus on potential free cash flow generation and targets investments that have the potential to deliver 15% IRRs over the investment time horizon of 3 to 5 years.
Company Presentation – Smiths News plc
Smiths News is the UK’s largest newspaper and magazine wholesaler. Our extensive time-critical logistics network operates around the clock, seven days a week, to supply a huge range of print media and other products to 24,000 customers, from the largest grocers to the smallest independent community stores. Smiths News also includes adjacent businesses that complement the daily delivery of newspapers and magazines, offering our publishers and retail customers a wide choice of additional, value adding, services.
Jonathan Bunting, CEO
Jonathan Bunting joined the Board on 1 April 2010. Jonathan has deep commercial and operational leadership skills, combined with extensive experience gained within the newspaper and magazine distribution industry, experience which is critical for the long term development and execution of the Company’s strategic plans.
Jonathan joined WH Smith News in 1994. He rose through the organisation in a variety of sales and marketing managerial roles before being promoted to the executive management team in 2001. In April 2014, Jonathan became Managing Director of the Connect News & Media division and, subsequently, Chief Operating Officer in September 2017, a position which spanned wider group business interests held at the time, together with Smiths News. Following his appointment as Interim Chief Executive Officer on 5 November 2019, this appointment was confirmed on 15 June 2020.
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.
The Mello BASH (Buy, Avoid, Sell & Hold)
Damian Cannon, Private Investor
Paul Scott, Private Investor