Renewed sense of optimism across the value investing community?

May 2024

We attended the London Value Investor Conference in May again this year. There was a renewed sense of optimism across the value investing community: even after several years of much improved performance for the style, the opportunity set remains broad, especially away from the US. This certainly echoes our own experiences in the markets. Specific ideas on the day included copper, Japan on the back of the seismic changes in corporate cultures there, and of course the UK – the market that everyone has recently loved to hate. It was an outstanding event, as ever, and we thoroughly recommend any interested investor coming along next year.

Elsewhere, John Gapper’s article in the FT (here) does an excellent job of expressing concern about recent boycotts, such as the Edinburgh Book Festival and Baillie Gifford. The festival felt under pressure due to Baillie Gifford’s holdings in tech companies (that have tangential links with Israel) on one side and energy companies on the other. “The boycott’s biggest problem is not its shallow logic or its elements of hypocrisy: it is that the campaign causes harm in the guise of doing good.” That this muddled thinking distorts financial markets is one thing (which at least can be exploited by a common-sense investor), but the damage that it is causing to the arts, and to wider society, is unforgivable.

Finally, we are also pleased to attach the latest fund factsheet.