Inside the Rope with David Clark

In this special live episode of Inside The Rope, David is joined by Alexandra Clarke (Portfolio Manager at Ellerston Capital), Rhett Kessler (Fund Manager and Principal for Pengana's Australian Equities Fund) and Phil King (CIO of Regal Funds Management) to discuss the behaviours and traits of successful investors.

Touching on some of the more defining moments of their respective careers, the three panellists cover some of the most challenging markets they have faced to date, as well as where they are seeing opportunities today.

Matthew joins David to discuss his fund The Level 18 Fund, as well as his career to date. Matthew began his career as a finance journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald in 1994 before working under Geoff Wilson at Wilson Asset Management for 13 years, and then ultimately establishing his own funds management business, Centennial Asset Management.

Matthew's fund, The Level 18 Fund which was established in 2015, has generated returns of 17.30% per annum to March 2022.

Matthew is the Principal and Portfolio Manager at Centennial Asset Management. Prior to this, Matthew worked as a portfolio manager/CIO at Wilson Asset Management for 13 years between 1998 and 2011, helping to build the business and excellent long-term investment track record, achieving 18% p.a over the period. Before his career as an investment analyst, Matthew worked as a finance journalist at the Sydney Morning Herald between the years 1994 and 1998, and in 1997 was made business editor.

Garry joins David in this episode to discuss his past experience as well as the AAM Diversified Agriculture Fund (ADAF), a strategy that targets a total return of 12% per annum, comprised of 6% income and 6% growth.

Garry and David also discuss Garry's past experiences that lead him to start investing in agriculture assets, such as his family farm outside Sydney and his experience in judging animals in the United States. Garry also highlights the need for diversification & scale across agriculture assets, and how AAM seeks to achieve this.

Garry is the Founder and Managing Director of the AAM Investment Group, and has over 25 years’ experience in large scale asset development and management within the Australian agribusiness sector.

Garry founded the company that today is AAM in 2007, commencing the development, operation and management of a portfolio of agricultural assets valued at over ~$650 million and remains the major shareholder of AAM.

Alex joins David to discuss the Realside Capital Flagship Fund, a fund primarily focused on private debt that has delivered returns to investors of 13.45% over 12 months to December 2021.

Investing across Real Estate, Hotels & Restaurants, Industrials, Financials and Natural Resources; Alex and David discuss the return profiles that investors can expect from such assets going forward, as well as the returns Realside has provided to date.

Alex Hone has more than 20 years of investment experience having worked with leading global firms in both Sydney and London. His experience has included establishing and developing funds management businesses that in turn developed global reputations for investment excellence.

Alex was previously the founding CEO/CIO of Atrium Investment Management. Prior to this, Alex was a Portfolio Manager with Magellan Financial Group and with Capital Partners (now CP2), a specialist global investment advisory and management firm. Alex commenced his career in the Treasury division of the National Australia Bank.

Ben joins David to discuss Kilara Capital a fund manager that he co-found in 2017 that focuses on investment opportunities that work toward sustainable infrastructure and a zero-carbon future.

Comprising 3 distinct business lines including private equity, energy and infrastructure solutions Kilara invest in deeply sustainable businesses across four key themes including future foods, circular economy, energy transformation and environmental markets. They are project developers and asset managers focused on advancing the build-out of utility scale renewable energy assets alongside the development of bespoke, zero emissions infrastructure solutions to businesses invested in the ‘cooling economy’.

Ben has over 20 years of experience across corporate advisory, legal advisory, commercial transactions and deal structuring in a variety of industry sectors, including renewable energy, commercial property, sustainable finance and environmental markets. He leads the Kilara Growth Fund deal team and is responsible for overall management and strategy across the Kilara Group. Ben sits on the Kilara Growth Fund Investment Committee as an executive member.

Chris joins David to discuss his fund, the 1851 Capital Emerging Companies Fund. Since inception in Feb 2020 till Dec 2021, the fund had produced a compound growth rate of 33% p.a.

Chris explains why he believes that the small-cap sector is the most inefficient part of the market, where fund managers can deliver the largest amount of outperformance to clients. He attributes much of this to the lack of broker coverage when compared to larger-cap counterparts. Chris and David also discuss the methodology that 1851 applies when analysing businesses and their management. Chris identifies the importance of even the smaller details when interviewing senior leadership teams, such as the subtleties of body language.

Working for more than 18 years in the Australian funds management industry, Chris has extensive experience investing in Australian equities. Most recently, Chris was the Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager at Wilson Asset Management Pty Limited (WAM) During his tenure as Chief Investment Officer at WAM, group funds under management (FUM) grew from $300 million to over $3 billion. In 2014, the Australian Financial Review named Chris as one of the Five Best Young Fund Managers in Australia.

In this episode, David is joined by Mattias Westman & Akshay Bhutiani of Prosperity Capital Management. A fund manager that focuses on investing in public companies across Russia and former USSR countries. They discuss the opportunities that this region provides to investors, citing examples of companies offering 20% yield whilst trading at three times earnings. Mattias and Akshay also discuss their thoughts on the current tensions between Russia and Ukraine, as well as why Mattias believes the likelihood of these tensions actually escalating to an invasion of Ukraine is low.

Mattias Westman is based in London, but shares his time between London and Moscow. He has been investing in Russia since 1993 and lived in Russia full-time from 1997-2004. Mr Westman was a co-founder and Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Investor Protection Association. He has also served on the board of numerous Russian companies - including Lenenergo and Magnit. Mr Bhutiani joined PCM in 2008 as the firm’s first intern and continued as a member of the team throughout his final year of university, assuming a full-time role upon graduation. He is a member of the investor relations team and has broad-ranging responsibilities for marketing and client services across PCM’s investor base.

In this episode, David is joined by Karl Wellner of Papamarkou Wellner Asset Management, a US firm that provides investment solutions to some of Europe and the United States wealthiest individuals, family offices, endowments, institutions, and foundations.

David and Karl delve into the types of clients that Papamarkou manages, including the issues that they face. He goes on to discuss the relationship process and the "marathon" of investing money on behalf of these clients. Karl also explains some of the different investment opportunities they come across for clients, and how they differ from your traditional "Stocks & Bonds" portfolio.

Karl Wellner joined Papamarkou Wellner Asset Management in 2003 as President and CEO. Mr. Wellner was previously President and CEO of Key Asset Management (USA) Inc. Mr. Wellner is also Founder, partner/shareholder of KAWE Kapital, one of the first members of the Tallinn Stock Exchange in Estonia and one of the larger independent investment management firms in the country.

In this episode, David is joined by Warren Ebert the founder and CEO of Sentinel Property Group. A group that has secured over $2bn of property transactions, whilst delivering IRRs across these assets of close to 20% p.a.

Warren’s in-depth knowledge of all property sectors, supported by the specialist skills and analysis of the wider Sentinel team, is central to the group’s proven buying and value-adding strategy.

He established Sentinel Property Group after more than 20 years’ high-level experience in the property industry, during which time he was responsible for a wide range of landmark commercial property developments and transactions.

He was formerly a director of commercial development at Citimark Properties Pty Ltd, a consultant to Property Funds Australia Limited, a director of retail projects at PRD Realty, and director of commercial developments at CB Richard Ellis.

According to Jeremy Grantham a co-founder of GMO, global warming will be the most important investment issue for the foreseeable future.

In this episode Lucas White (Portfolio Manager of the GMO Climate Change Trust) joins David to discuss their Climate Change strategy's origins, as well as its objectives and the opportunities going forward. Lucas and the team at GMO believe that climate change is among the most important investment opportunities facing investors today. Their belief is proving correct, with the fund returning 24.37% p.a. over 3 years (USD) to Nov 2021 compared to the MSCI ACWI's 15.95% p.a. over the same period.

Lucas White is the portfolio manager for the Resources and Climate Change Strategies. He is a member of GMO’s Focused Equity team and a partner of the firm. Previously at GMO, he was engaged in portfolio management for the Global Equity team, including responsibilities for the Quality, Tactical Opportunities, and U.S. Growth Strategies. Prior to joining GMO in 2006, he worked at Standish Mellon Asset Management and MFS. Mr. White earned his B.A. in Economics and Psychology from Duke University. He is a CFA charterholder.