Inside the Rope with David Clark

In this episode, David is joined by Andrew Rothery to discuss the opportunities and advantages of investing in private markets. Andrew highlights the broad range of assets that can find a home in the private market, including equities, debt securities, and alternative investments like oil and gas. He emphasizes that private ownership is more about the needs of the investor rather than the specific asset class.

The conversation explores Andrew's positions as a non-executive director in various businesses, such as a deep tech incubator and a property development company focused on community-building. He also mentions his involvement with Blackbird Ventures and LeapFrog Investments, showcasing the growing venture capital and impact investing sectors.

Andrew stresses the importance of track records when selecting managers in the private asset space. He encourages investors to look for managers with a successful history and a proven ability to generate returns. Additionally, he highlights the role of advisory boards in managing conflicts of interest in venture capital funds. If this is done well, Andrew believes private markets can offer investors the potential for high returns, diversification, and the opportunity to invest in impactful and innovative businesses.

In this episode, David is joined once again by Chris Joye, Chief Investment Officer at Coolabah Capital. They discuss the current state and future of various asset classes, including residential property prices, cash, and bonds. David and Chris also delve into the basis for the RBA's 2-3% inflation target and its significance in forming their cash rate decisions.

Chris emphasizes the importance of liquidity, optionality, and risk management for investors, favouring cash and high-grade floating rate bonds issued by governments, banks, or too big to fail companies. He warns of potential disaster in commercial real estate and retains his prediction for a peak to trough correction of 15-25% in Australian residential house prices. Chris argues that booming asset prices over past years have been driven by cheap borrowing costs, which are now reversing, leading to a significant change in financial market dynamics. He also touches upon the Reserve Bank of Australia's interest rate decisions, suggesting there may be a few more hikes to come.

With his contrarian views and successful track record, Chris provides valuable insights on navigating the market.

In this episode of Inside The Rope, David Clark interviews Neil Schloss, former Treasurer of Ford Motor Company and currently sits on the investment committee of the J-Impact Fund.

They discuss the future of the mobility industry and the challenges of investing in it. Neil emphasizes the importance of understanding the business model and revenue potential of companies in this space before investing, as well as the need to diversify one's investments. He also notes the blurred lines between different areas of mobility, such as bikes and delivery vehicles, and suggests looking for technologies and enhancements within those core areas.

Neil also acknowledges the safety concerns around autonomous vehicles and the need for continued education to address them. He touches on the potential for a shift in the revenue model of the industry, with the rise of subscription services and the increasing role of insurance companies. Overall, the episode provides a grounded perspective on the mobility industry and offers insights for investors looking to navigate this complex and rapidly evolving space.

In this episode of Inside The Rope, David is joined once again by Kim Morrison, the Chief Investment Officer at Argyle Group.

Kim joins David to discuss the Argyle Water Fund, a fund that aims to provide investors with opportunities to invest in water rights and agricultural assets in Australia. By investing in these assets, the fund seeks to generate long-term returns for its investors while supporting the growth and development of the agricultural sector. By investing in water rights, the fund helps farmers unlock capital from their balance sheets, allowing them to transition to high-value crops and undertake long-term developments. This enables farmers to access their own private capital, leading to increased capacity to make their operations more sustainable.

The episode also highlights the stability of the legislative framework governing water rights in Australia. Including the deliberate processes implemented by the government, including buybacks, to balance water allocation between environmental flows and consumption. Kim also covers the concerns about environmental impacts, such as fish deaths, which can be attributed to natural factors like rainfall and flooding, rather than excessive water extraction by agriculture.

In this episode of Inside the Rope, host David Clark chats with Luke Keary, a celebrated rugby league player, about his impressive career and insights into having a high-performance mindset. Luke shares his journey from playing Rugby Union as a kid to winning three NRL grand finals and a Clive Churchill medal with the Roosters. But the conversation isn't just about rugby league - Luke also talks about his interest in business and finance, and his plans for life after football.

David and Luke delve into the importance of regulating emotions in high-pressure moments to perform well, and Luke mentions the influencers who helped shape his career, including his first head coach Michael McGuire, Roosters' coach Trent Robinson and former player Cooper Cronk. Luke speaks highly of Robinson's unique approach to coaching, which goes beyond the field to include books, podcasts, and poems that broaden players' perspectives.

Luke's insights can be applied to all areas of life, making this episode a great listen for anyone interested in high-performance mindset, leadership, and dealing with tough times.

In this episode of the "Inside the Rope" podcast, host David Clark interviews Mitch Taylor, co-founder of Longreach Credit Investors and manager of the Longreach Direct Lending Fund.

The Longreach Direct Lending Fund writes senior loans to Australian and some New Zealand corporate borrowers, focusing on highly creditworthy borrowers that may have been neglected by traditional banks. Mitch explains how the fund is protecting against higher interest rates and inflation, and discusses the fund's performance over the past 12 months, which has returned 8.74%. Mitch also touches on his background in credit and his experience working on a distressed credit trading desk during the 2008 financial crisis, which has informed the Longreach Credit Investors' approach to protecting capital.

Mitch has a background in credit, including 16 years with Macquarie Group in Australia and the US markets. He also worked for Corda Mentha in insolvency and advisory work before joining Longreach Credit Investors in 2017. Mitch Taylor was previously a guest on episode 15 back in 2018.

In this episode of Inside The Rope, David Clark is joined again by Roger Lloyd, founder and managing director of Palisade Investment Partners, an independent Australian infrastructure manager. Roger shares insights into the Palisade Infrastructure Trust and discusses how the fund has performed over the past year. He also provides an update on some of the key infrastructure assets in the Palisade portfolio and the company's approach to managing these assets.

Roger also discusses the importance of sustainability in infrastructure investing and shares his thoughts on the role that infrastructure can play in driving economic growth. Finally, he reflects on his long career in the infrastructure industry and shares some lessons he has learned along the way.

Roger Lloyd is the founder and managing director of Palisade Investment Partners, an Australian infrastructure manager that invests in core infrastructure assets across Australia and New Zealand. With over 30 years of experience in the infrastructure industry, Lloyd has been a key contributor to the development of the Australian infrastructure market. He is also a board member of several of Palisade's portfolio companies and holds a Bachelor of Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Melbourne.

Tom joined Nanuk in 2009 as a director of the firm, the firm’s chief investment officer and one of the firm’s portfolio managers with approximately 20 years’ investment industry experience in equity funds management, investment banking and private equity. Before his career in finance, Tom won a gold medal in sailing at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and paved the way for Australian high-performance sailors for years to come. In recognition of these accomplishments, Tom was also awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia.

Nanuk Asset Management was established in 2009 to develop world-leading expertise in the investment opportunities and risks associated with environmental sustainability and resource use efficiency. Nanuk does this by investing in globally listed companies associated with the broad themes of clean energy, energy efficiency, industrial efficiency, waste management, pollution control, food & agriculture, advanced & sustainable materials, water and healthcare technology. Nanuk takes an active, fundamental, valuation and research-driven investment approach. They incorporate positive and negative screening, ESG factors and values-based norms into their decision-making process.

In this episode, David is joined by David Blood to discuss his views on sustainable investing in 2023. David Blood is considered by many to be one of the pioneers of sustainable investment management.

Almost 20 years ago In 2004, David created Generation Investment Management alongside Al Gore the former Vice President of the United States, a fund that invests with the mission to seek transformational change to drive to a net zero, prosperous, equitable, healthy and safe society. Prior to to creating Generation Investment Management, David was the CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

David Blood is a Founding Partner and Senior Partner of Generation Investment Management. He also serves as Chairperson of Just Climate. Previously, David spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs including serving as CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. David received a BA from Hamilton College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. David is chairperson of Social Finance UK and co-chair of the World Resources Institute and on the board of Dialight and On the Edge Conservation.

In this episode, David is joined again by Akiva Katz, one of the founders of Bow Street LLC, an event-driven hedge fund manager, to discuss their litigation financing strategy.

Aiming to produce IRRs in excess of 15 to 20% p.a. from litigation financing, Bow Street finds and purchases litigation assets in which guilt has already been established and the outcome is no longer binary. In these cases the question changes from will there be to damages, to "How much are the damages?".

Akiva Katz, and his business partner, Howard Shainker, became friends in 2004 at Harvard Business School. There they came up with the idea for Bow Street, named after a street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near the restaurant where they would meet to talk about their plan. Believing that economic conditions would be setting up for a momentous event-driven climate over the next several years, they wanted to create a hedge fund that would combine research-intensive approach with an event-driven mentality.