Navigating the noise – conversations with the Natixis Investment Managers Expert Collective.

Portfolio managers Hugh Giddy and Daniel Moore discuss what happened in markets in the June quarter as well as the performance of IML's large cap funds and key stocks over financial year 2025.

With the ongoing war in Ukraine, continuing conflict in the Middle East, and a reshaping of the global framework underway since Donald Trump came to office, defence stocks have been hot property in the world of investing. While Australian investors don’t have that many options when investing locally, an exception is ship builder Austal (ASX:ASB). 

Austal has been a long-term holding for IML’s small and mid cap funds, which have seen its share price triple since the start of 2024. However IML portfolio manager Lucas Goode thinks there could still be plenty of upside for Austal in years to come. 

That is the perspective of David Rolley, Co-Head of the Global Fixed Income Team at Loomis Sayles who has worked in markets for more than 40 years. David thinks that the current White House: “isn't convinced that the global foreign policy, trade, defence, and financial architecture that we've had for the last 80 years serves their purpose.” This is causing considerable change to the global economy and financial markets while making bond, credit, currency and equity markets riskier places to invest.

Listen to the full podcast where David talks to Louise Watson about:

Hollie Briggs and the Loomis Sayles Growth Equity Strategies Team are not overly concerned by the current market volatility. In fact, they see it as potentially an exciting opportunity to buy high-quality companies at discounted prices, which are then less risky than they were previously. The Team has been working together since 2006, successfully navigating the Global Financial Crisis and Covid pandemic, which both turned up many more buying opportunities than normal.

Medibank is a long-term holding for IML. While it has performed well over the years, its share price has hit new heights this year as investors turned to defensive, domestically focused stocks amid the uncertainty and macro-economic volatility.

IML Portfolio Manager, Marc Whittaker, talks to Jason Guthrie about how IML’s small and mid cap portfolios have navigated the recent market volatility and wraps up performance for the first quarter of 2025. Marc also discusses how exposed the companies in the portfolios are to the US’s new tariff regime.

Louise Watson talks to Chris Wallis, CEO and CIO of Vaughan Nelson, about Trump’s tariffs and recent policy changes and the current market volatility. Chris believes that the current market turmoil is an inevitable part of a global change to trade and capital flows that has been going on since 2021 which he calls: “the great rebalancing”.

After a period of US exceptionalism where everyone had piled into US large cap stocks and mega-cap technology, Chris says capital is now flowing out of an over-invested US and “going home”.

Listen to the full podcast where Chris also discusses:

For those who enjoyed Chris Wallis's macro and market commentary, you can hear him regularly on the Vaughan Nelson Investment Management Podcast on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple.  

IML Portfolio Manager Marc Whittaker talks to Jason Guthrie about another volatile reporting season in the small to mid-cap end of the ASX. As always there have been many winners and losers and Marc discusses the trends he is seeing including margin pressures and a reckoning for some of the best performing companies and sectors of recent months.

Marc also outlines the performance of a some of IML’s key holdings including Mayne Pharma (MYX), oOh!Media (ASX:OML), Integral Diagnostics (IDX) and Light & Wonder (ASX:LNW).

IML Portfolio Manager Michael O’Neill discusses how investors have been rotating away from away from momentum-driven stocks with high valuations towards more defensive stocks with strong fundamentals in this reporting season. He also shares his thoughts on the performance of the major banks and iron ore miners as well as some of the key stocks in IML’s portfolios including Brambles (BXB), Charter Hall Retail REIT (CQR), CSL (CSL) and Amcor (AMC).

Integral Diagnostics (ASX:IDX) had a great year in 2024; its share price was up around 50% as its business recovered from the post-Covid doldrums. It has just completed a merger with Capitol Health to make it Australia’s second largest radiology provider and IML portfolio manager Marc Whittaker believes this has it well set up for its next phase of growth.

In this podcast Marc discusses why Integral Diagnostics is one of his highest conviction holdings in IML’s small and mid cap funds.