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Active Equity Funds Underperform – But What About Passive Funds?

Last Monday (21/3/2016) there was a front page story in the FTfm supplement which was headlined "86% of active equity funds underperform". The article said that a study by S&P Dow Jones Indices showed that "almost every actively managed fund in Europe investing in global, emerging and US markets has failed to beat its benchmark over the past decade....". The article went on to question the value added by stockpicking fund managers at some length Now it immediately struck me that the ...

Lakehouse and Tungsten

To follow up on my previous report on a presentation by Lakehouse directors following a requisition submitted to remove three of the non-executive directors, the company has now published a 21 page document giving their reasons why shareholders should support the board. As is customary in these battles, the board "unanimously recommends you vote against the resolutions" to remove the three new directors and appoint new ones. I said in my previous note that it was "all still a puzzle" as it ...

The Trouble with LTIPs…

It was with some consternation that I read this announcement today from one of my investee companies, Gulf Marine Services (LSE:GMS), in which LTIP awards are granted to several...

Lakehouse – All Still a Puzzle

I attended a presentation by Lakehouse (LAKE) last night at Mello. I was keen to learn more about this company, and why a requisition to remove directors had been made recently which is a somewhat unusual event. The public announcements and national media comments on it left a lot of questions unanswered which I hoped might be supplied. Here are some notes on the meeting. First some background. Lakehouse is an asset and energy support services group that constructs, improves, maintains and ...

FAMR and Advice Services

Just before the Budget was announced, the Final Report of the Financial Advice Market Review (FAMR) was published. That Review was the latest examination of the financial advice market. To put it in some historic perspective, the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) was introduced to improve the quality of financial advice provided and remove obvious bias. So financial advisors had to stop bundling, and effectively hiding, the cost of advice when selling financial products but had to declare it. This certainly improved the ...