Tuesday 14th September 2021

3.00pm - 7.30pm

Programme

3.00 pm Mello introduction and welcome
3.05 pm The AIC and the benefits of investing in Investment Trusts & Funds
3.30 pm Company presentation by India Capital Growth Fund
4.00 pm Reg Hoare presents an update on Investment Trusts & Funds
4.15 pm Company presentation by Sanford DeLand Free Spirit Fund
4.45 pm David Stredder interviews Alyx Wood, Fund Manager at Kernow AM
5.05 pm Introducing Edmund Shing, private investor in Investment Trusts & Funds
5.15 pm Company presentation by Next Energy Solar Fund
5.45 pm Company presentation by Downing Renewable & Infrastructure Trust (DORE)
6.15 pm Money Makers – Join Jonathan and Simon for the latest Investment Trust news
6.35 pm Investment Trusts & Funds panel session with Q&A

Money Makers – Join Jonathan and Simon for the latest Investment Trust news

Jonathan Davis

Editor, Money Makers

Jonathan Davis started  his career as a financial journalist on The Times, Sunday Telegraph and The Independent before qualifying as a professional investor. He is a Member of The Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment and the author of several books on stock market investment, as well as editor of the annual Investment Trusts Handbook and a senior adviser at Saunderson House.

Simon Elliott

Head of investment trust research, Winterflood Securities

Simon Elliott has covered the investment trust sector since 2002 when he joined Winterflood Securities. Since 2008 he has headed the research team, which has been highly rated in subsequent Extel Surveys. Simon started his career with PWC, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1998, before working in industry for three years. He completed a MBA with the Cranfield School of Management in 2002.

Company Presentation CFP SDL – Free Spirit Fund

The investment objective of the Fund is to seek to maximise total returns over the long term, defined as five to ten years. The Fund will invest mainly in a portfolio of UK equities listed on the LSE or quoted on AIM/ISDX, with an emphasis on small and mid-capitalised companies.

Eric Burns, Chief Analyst

Eric has over 20 years’ experience of UK equity markets as an investment manager and analyst. He joined Sanford DeLand from WH Ireland where he was an equity analyst for more than twelve years, latterly Deputy Head of Institutional Research. In 2015, he was voted Analyst of the Year at the UK SmallCap Awards. He is also a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment and sits on the Regional Advisory Group of the London Stock Exchange. Eric was appointed as Chief Analyst at Sanford DeLand in January 2020 and leads the stock research process for both the UK Buffettology and Free Spirit Funds.

David Beggs, Investment Analyst

David joined Sanford DeLand in October 2020 as an Investment Analyst. He has a First Class Degree in Economics from Newcastle University and holds the CFA UK Investment Management Certificate. David is also a Level II candidate in the CFA Program and an Associate member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.

Edmund Shing, private investor in Investment Trusts & Funds

Edmund Shing – private investor in Investment Trusts & Funds

Edmund Shing is currently Global CIO at BNP Paribas Wealth Management, based in Paris, after working for several years in London as Global Head of Equity Derivative Strategy in BNP Paribas Global Markets.  Edmund has previously worked at Barclays Capital (as Head of European Equity Strategy), BNP Paribas (as a Prop Trader), Julius Baer, Schroders and Goldman Sachs over a 26-year career in financial markets based in Paris and London. He also holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Birmingham. Follow him on Twitter @TheIdleInvestor and at https://wealthmanagement.bnpparibas/vow/en.html 

Company Presentation – NextEnergy Solar Fund

NextEnergy Solar Fund is a renewable energy infrastructure investment company that currently invests in operating solar power plants in the UK and Italy. The Company may invest up to 30% of its gross asset value in non-UK OECD countries, 15% in private equity structures, and 10% in standalone energy storage.  NESF currently has a diversified portfolio comprising 94 operating solar assets, primarily on agricultural, industrial, and commercial sites, with a combined installed power capacity of c.814MWp.  As at 31 March 2021, the Company had gross assets of £1,025 million, of which 88% was invested in the UK, and net assets of £581 million. The majority of long-term cash flows from its investments are inflation-linked.  NESF’s investment objective is to provide ordinary shareholders with attractive risk-adjusted returns, principally in the form of regular dividends, by investing in a diversified portfolio of primarily UK-based solar energy infrastructure assets. The dividend is payable quarterly, and the Company has recently announced a dividend for the year ending 31 March 2022 of 7.16p per ordinary share.

Ross Grier, Managing Director

Peter Hamid, Senior IR Associate

Peter joined the NextEnergy Capital investor relations team as a Senior Associate in January 2021, primarily focusing on our NextEnergy Solar fund, the FTSE250 investment trust.
Before this, Peter worked at strategic advisor Maitland/AMO for four years, where he advised listed companies, funds, and debt vehicles on their investor relations strategy and engagement, whilst also providing outsourced IR services.  Prior to this, Peter worked at Barclays Wealth and Investment Management for six years

Reg Hoare presents an update on Investment Trusts & Funds

Reg Hoare – Investment Trusts and Funds private investor

Reg has extensive experience investing in Investment Trusts and Funds.  He has gained over 30 years City experience, initially gained with 11 years in investment banking and securities, principally at SG Warburg and Nomura. He switched to financial PR in 1995, and specialises in advising mid market companies, from FTSE 250 to AIM 100 across a number of sectors, and has a long track record of advising in complex situations including IPOs, fund raisings, M&A, crises and restructurings. He also served for 8 years as a Board member of the Investor Relations Society, Europe’s leading body for investor relations practitioners.

David Interviews Cornwall’s favourite hedge fund – Kernow Asset Management

Kernow Asset Management

Kernow co-founder, Alyx Wood, who has a family home in Cornwall, named the firm Kernow, meaning Cornwall in the old Celtic Cornish language. He has a track record of generating substantial alpha from contrarian views on UK equities, and Kernow is forging a distinctive corporate culture, which includes becoming a B Corp to formalize its own commitment to corporate social responsibility as well as having a growing presence on social media such as LinkedIn and Instagram.

Since the company was founded in a coffee shop in 2019, Kernow’s long/short UK equity strategy has made 41.2% between November 2019 and April 2021, a period over which unloved and neglected UK equities delivered negative returns of 1.2% for the FTSE All Share. Kernow has also maintained much lower downside volatility than the market. Longer term, Wood has a strong record of outperformance in UK equity small cap – where his portfolio annualized at 16.5% gross between 2014 and 2018, and greatly outperformed peers. He has been personally investing – including shorting – since the age of 15.

 Alyx Wood – Chief Investment Officer of Kernow Asset Management

Kernow Asset Management is a private investment manager who operates in the widening market gap between short-term quant-orientated traders and closet indexers. They built their independent business based on traditional values informed by a contemporary approach to managing investments. As a pre-eminent UK equities team, they deliver a focused strategy in both hedge fund and traditional formats and can run tailored segregated mandates upon request. Previously Alyx trained as a chartered accountant with KPMG before moving onto Deutsche Bank and then a boutique asset manager. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ICAS) and holds the Investment Management Certificate and a BA in Accounting and Economics.

Click here for the Kernow AM Monthly Factsheet – August 2021

The AIC – Educational Presentation 

 

The AIC is the trade body for closed-ended investment companies. The association represents a broad range of closed-ended investment companies, including investment trusts, REITs and Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs).

Nick Britton

A former financial and business journalist, Nick joined the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) in 2015. He works with financial advisers and wealth managers, aiming to improve their understanding and usage of investment companies. As a journalist, Nick held roles including Editor of What Investment magazine and Head of Research at Vitesse Media, where he produced reports such as Directors’ Pay on AIM, the Cash Shells Directory, Institutional Investors in AIM and the VCT Report. He also edited the GrowthBusiness.co.uk website which is aimed at growth companies, their investors and advisers. Nick is married with three children and graduated from Cambridge University.

Company Presentation – India Capital Growth Fund

The India Capital Growth Fund (ICGF) is a closed ended Investment Company, listed on the main board of the London Stock Exchange. It follows a bottom-up long-term investment approach focused on India’s small and midcap market with a concentrated portfolio of around 30 holdings. ICGF is managed by Ocean Dial, a single country focused asset management company investing directly into India.

David Cornell, Executive Director

David Cornell joined Ocean Dial in January 2010 from Henderson Global Investors and is an Executive Director of the Company. He is based in London having been resident in Mumbai for three years until July 2013. He started his career in 1995 covering India for Robert Fleming Securities, ran the BDT Emerging Market Fund from 2004 to 2008 which compounded at over 25% per annum during his tenure and then co-managed New Star’s Institutional Emerging Market Fund. He has a degree in English and History from the University of Durham and was in the British Army from 1991-1995.

Company Presentation – Downing Renewables & Infrastructure Trust plc

About Downing Renewables & Infrastructure Trust plc (DORE)
DORE is a closed-end investment trust that aims to provide investors with an attractive and sustainable level of income, with an element of capital growth, by investing in a diversified portfolio of renewable energy and infrastructure assets in the UK and Northern Europe.

DORE’s strategy, which focuses on diversification by geography, technology, revenue and project stage, is designed to increase the stability of revenues and the consistency of income to shareholders. For further details please visit www.doretrust.com

About Downing LLP
Downing LLP is a London-based investment management firm. It has over 25,000 investors and has raised over £1.7 billion into businesses across a range of sectors, from renewable energy, care homes, health clubs, and children’s nurseries, to technology and sports nutrition. Downing has a demonstrable track record in renewables, having made 119 investments into solar parks, wind farms and hydroelectric plants since 2010. For further details please visit www.downing.co.uk

Tom Williams, Partner and Head of Energy and Infrastructure

Tom joined Downing as Partner in the Energy & Infrastructure team in July 2018. He heads up the team and has 20 years’ of experience as Principal and Adviser across the private equity and private debt infrastructure sectors. He trained as a Solicitor before moving into private equity, where he carried out successful transactions totalling in excess of £13 billion in the energy, utilities, transportation, accommodation and defence sectors. Tom holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Royal College of Law and both a master’s and bachelor’s degree in law from Cambridge University.

Henrik Dahlstrom, Investment Director

Henrik joined Downing in August 2020 as Investment Director in the Energy & Infrastructure division, where he leads investments in the Nordic region, an area which he has specialised in for nearly two decades.

Previous to his Downing appointment, Henrik undertook a 17-year tenure at Macquarie as a Director with Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) and was made Head of Nordic Region in 2015. Since 2004, Dahlström has been involved in all six of Macquarie’s diversified European infrastructure funds (Macquarie European Infrastructure Funds, MEIF).

Henrik holds a Master of Science and Major in Finance from Gothenburg School of Economic, Sweden being where he grew up.

Tom Moore, Partner and Head of Asset Management

Tom Moore joined Downing in May 2019 and is a Partner and Head of Asset Management. Tom is building our asset management functionality to provide our investors with an efficient and class leading management service. Prior to joining Downing, Tom was Director at Foresight Group, where he had oversight of a significant portfolio of renewable energy investments.

Investment Trust & Funds panel session with Q&A 

Jonathan Davis – Money Maker

Mark Bentley – ShareSoc

Simon Elliott – Money Maker

Karin Schulte – ShareSoc

Edmund Shing – private investor in Investment Trusts & Funds