"As soon as you start to get comfortable in a particular stock or company, we're generally selling and finding the next uncomfortable thing to own." That’s the contrarian nature that exists at Allan Gray and is reinforced by their fund managers. In the latest installment of our Fund Manager Q&A,... Show More
Contrarian investing is like an extreme form of value investing; contrarians will make investments that even a bold value manager would baulk at. It’s a fact of investing in unloved (and, in some cases, distressed) companies that some of the companies you invest in will fail. Simon Mawhinney, Chief Investment... Show More
When you invest in a business like AMP, nobody stops you in the street to tell you what a great investment it is. While the businesses that AMP run may not look very appealing, Simon Mawhinney, Chief Investment Officer at Allan Gray Australia, says it’s the price that you pay... Show More
Contrarians can be a lot like teenagers: they think they’re all different but end up looking the same. This however, is not true of this week’s guest, Tim Hillier from Allan Gray. Case in point: when asked what stock he’d own if the market were to close for five years,... Show More
In an age of social media and smartphones, the challenges faced by investors today are decidedly different to just a few decades ago. With algorithms serving us a consistent diet of content that’s similar to what we’ve ‘liked’, it’s easy to get caught in an echo chamber. Show More
The list of problems facing Telstra is well known: falling revenues as the NBN rolls out, and declining market share in mobile. As the payments from the NBN begin to roll-off, some have questioned whether Telstra can even maintain its reduced dividend. But it’s precisely this negativity that caught the... Show More
As the GFC started to unfold, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) quickly fell in value, from a generous premium to just 75% of their book value. Allan Gray saw a contrarian opportunity, stepped up to the plate, and started investing in the sector. Simon Mawhinney, Chief Investment Officer of Allan Gray,... Show More
It is not easy being a financial adviser. As fund managers it is our job to deliver the best returns we possibly can with the mandate we are given, but an adviser’s job is arguably a lot tougher. Clients work for years, entrusting their hard-earned money to advisers. Understandably that... Show More
Sigma is a wholesaler of pharmaceutical products. It acts as an intermediary distributor that buys drugs from manufacturers and sells them to the pharmacies that ultimately dispense these drugs to Australians in need. Some of these pharmacies operate under one of Sigma’s banners (see Figure 1), while others are independently... Show More
Baron Rothschild famously told investors to ‘buy when there’s blood in the streets’, but buying opportunities like the GFC don’t come around often. How can investors find contrarian ideas at other times? Simon Mawhinney from Allan Gray, which specialises in contrarian investing, addresses this question in the video below. ... Show More