On the Couch

CLICK HERE to sign up for a free trial of the Marcus Today newsletter including our daily STRATEGY PODCAST

In this weeks' special 'On the Couch', we catch up with Mark Landau, the CIO of Long Short Fund (LSF) and the Co -Founder of L1 Capital.

As many of you will know, we have been big supporters of LSF ,and have done extremely well out of this LIC which we first started buying in 2020 at a 30% discount to its NTA. Since then the stock has risen from 100c to 280c. Although the discount has closed, we remain very keen on the fund and their way of doing things. Having chatted to Mark, it is clear LSF should be on every investors radar.  Plenty of great ideas and brilliant advice on the investment process.

About Mark Landau

Mark is a Joint Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer of L1 Capital. Since co-founding L1 Capital in 2007, Mark has jointly managed the L1 Capital Australian Equities strategy and the L1 Capital Long Short strategy. The Australian Equities strategy has been one of the top decile performing large cap Australian Equities funds since launch in 2007 according to Zenith (Annual Survey, June 2020). 

Building on this success, L1 Capital launched the Long Short strategy in 2014, which has delivered net returns of greater than 25% in 5 out of the 6 calendar years it has been running. Prior to founding L1 Capital, Mark worked at Invesco Australia as an Investment Analyst in the large cap Australian Equities Fund and an Investment Manager in the Invesco Smaller Companies Fund.  

Mark holds a double degree in Commerce and Economics from Monash University, is an active CFA charterholder and is a Fellow of FINSIA.

CLICK HERE to sign up for a free trial of the Marcus Today newsletter including our daily STRATEGY PODCAST

This week we catch up with one of the smartest fund managers around. Many will be familiar with Nick Griffin from Munro Partners - he is a frequent valued contributor to Livewire and other media.

Nick has spent the last 20 years managing long/short funds and most recently he is the founder and CIO at Munro Partners which has two funds , the ASX listed Global Growth Fund and the unlisted Concentrated Global Growth Fund both of which have offered investors great performance over a long period.

Nick is responsible for the investment management of Munro’s key investment funds and the formulation and implementation of the proprietary investment process. 

Nick holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) degree from the University of Melbourne, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment.

Munro Partners is a global investment manager with a core focus on growth equities. Established in 2016 by an award winning investment team with a 15 year proven track record of strong returns, the business has over $5 billion in AUM.

CLICK HERE to sign up for a free trial of the Marcus Today newsletter including our daily STRATEGY PODCAST

I sat down with Geoff Lord and Kurt Hansen from Tesserent (TNT) this week and spent a terrific 30 minutes chatting all things cyber and how the TNT business is going. 

Geoff Lord needs no introduction, and he was a lovely down-to-earth guy and very generous with his time. Some may remember Geoff from UXC which he founded, built, and sold in 2016.  Geoff is also the Founder and CEO of the Belgravia Group, a privately held investment group which since being established in 1990 has grown to employ more than 10,000 people in businesses spanning sports, fitness, leisure, clothing and more. Geoff is a bit of a sports fan of course having served as Chairman of Hawthorn Football Club and Melbourne Victory.

Joining Geoff 'On the Couch' is Kurt Hansen, the joint CEO and MD of TNT. Kurt has over 20 years of IT industry experience driving sales and delivery transformation and business growth across many IT and security organisations in Australia and New Zealand. Before commencing his corporate career, Kurt worked as a general service officer in the Royal Australian Signal Corps. 

Was really good to have access to Kurt as well. It is a great podcast and well worth downloading. Geoff does not give his time easily, he is a busy man, so we are very lucky. Enjoy.

Apologies for the quality of my voice asking the questions in the podcast in the second half. A few tech issues my end. Answers are the important thing anyway!

This week's On the Couch is with Betmakers (BET) COO Jake Henson. Given that we own BET in the MT Growth Portfolio, we thought it would be a good idea to catch up with all the trackside action and hear the story from the horses' mouth. We talk about the opportunities ahead, BET's recent Sportech acquisition and the importance of having industry legend Matthew Tripp backing the company.

Jake has been a key member of BET for more than 4 years and holds 10 years’ experience in the sports and wagering industries. Most recently he has overseen the integration of the Company’s acquisitions, DynamicOdds and Global Betting Services within the BET business as well as introducing these end-to-end product offerings to BET clients.

CLICK HERE to sign up for a free trial of the Marcus Today newsletter including our daily STRATEGY PODCAST.

Welcome to another special episode of ‘On the Couch’ with myself Henry Jennings from Marcus Today. This week I am talking to Doug Morris, the CEO of Sharesight. 

Some members will be familiar with this portfolio tracking platform and Doug runs through some of its features. We talk, Bitcoin, NFTs and the rise of fintechs and some of the trends that he sees with his unique view on a wide range of client portfolios.

Doug is a leading voice in the Australasian FinTech and SaaS industries. He began his career with Morningstar, Inc. in Chicago, IL, where he served in a project management role within the investment management business. He served as Product Manager for Morningstar Adviser Research Center, a platform serving financial advisers and then Global Product & Marketing Manager, Equity & Credit Research, overseeing international research distribution. Doug joined Sharesight as General Manager in 2013, before becoming CEO in 2015. 

Welcome to another special episode of ‘On the Couch’ with myself Henry Jennings from Marcus Today. This week I am joined on the couch by John Forwood, the CIO from Lowell Resource Funds Management (LRT). 

John is a qualified lawyer and geologist experienced in the resources sector. He has 17 years of resources financing experience with RMB Resources, including 13 years as a manager of the Telluride Fund. John also has 5 years' experience in exploration and development geology in Australia, Tanzania and Indonesia.

John and Henry talk about how the fund has delivered a 200% gain in the last year against a backdrop of falling bullion prices and John names three great stocks to benefit from the commodity supercycle with a focus on small gold explorers and uranium stocks.

CLICK HERE to sign up for a free trial of the Marcus Today newsletter including our daily STRATEGY PODCAST.

Join us On the Couch with John Caulfield from Van  Eck talking all things ETF with a special focus on the newly listed CLNE and VLUE ETFs giving investors exposure to emerging clean energy and value stocks.

A great look at what is driving these ETFs and why they offer good long term investment potential.

CLICK HERE to sign up for a free trial of the Marcus Today newsletter including our daily STRATEGY PODCAST.

This week we catch up with Portfolio Manager Jun Bei Liu from Tribeca Investment Partners. Jun Bei is a familiar face on financial news media and a truly passionate investor. Jun Bei manages a $1bn long short fund with Tribeca and is  a regular participant in prestigious conferences such as Sohn as well as appearances on CNBC, Ausbiz and Bloomberg TV.

Jun Bei spent four years as an investment analyst covering the Australian consumer sectors at Morningstar and Foster Stockbroking. Jun Bei is a native Chinese speaker and regularly travels to China and visits other Asian markets as part of her Investment Research.

Jun Bei is also a CFA charter holder and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Join us this week for a look at the world of commercial and residential property as we talk to REIT Fund Manager James Storey, Head of Real Assets, from 360 Capital who manages the 360 Capital REIT (TOT). 

James has over 15 years experience in real estate funds management with significant experience investing across debt, equity and corporate transactions.
James was previously the fund manager of 360 Capital Office Fund (TOF) and the Industrial Fund (TIX).

James has a bachelor of Business (Property Economics) from University of Western Sydney.
He is also a non-executive director of Velocity Property Group (VP7).

Not an area we usually look at so a great chance to delve a little deeper into the world of REITs.

It is a great time to catch up with Fund manager Julia Lee from Burman Invest. We take a deep dive into some of the companies Julia was watching over results season and how they reported and look at what's ahead for those companies and the market in 2021.

Julia Lee is a familiar face to most who watch business TV - she is a well known expert in her field. Julia is not only a great communicator and a very popular presenter but also now has her own fund, Burman Invest. The fund is index unaware and aims to:

• Deliver strong performance in a rising price and earnings growth environment
• Focus on capital protection in a falling price and declining earnings environment

Julia Lee is on the board of directors for the Australian Stockbrokers Foundation. She has a Master of Business in Finance (MBus) degree, is an accredited Derivatives Adviser 2 (ADA2(ASX)) and is RG 146 compliant.