John Armitage is a giant in the hedge fund world and in the world of investing more broadly. His firm, Egerton Capital, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. In this conversation, John explains how he started with $10m, and why you couldn’t do that today. He touches on his portfolio, talks about his approach to investing, explaining why he requires his analysts to follow more than one sector, and why he doesn’t employ data scientists. We discuss Elon Musk, AI, and geopolitics and John gives advice to a young person contemplating a career choice.

And Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, the largest single equity owner in the world, explains why John is so highly regarded by his peers.

John is our first podcast guest to return for a second episode.

John Huber is an investor with a small fund managing his family assets and outside capital in a concentrated portfolio.

John has written an excellent blog, Base Hit Investing, for many years, explaining his investing principles.

We discuss these in this episode, including what John looks for in an investment, why he emphasises capital allocation even more today, where he sees the sweet spot in revenue growth, why he likes Alphabet, why he is focused in North American stocks but is now looking at Japan and US small caps and why Floor & Décor is one of his major positions.

Show Notes

Carine Smith Ihenacho is Chief Governance and Compliance Officer at Norges Bank Investment Management, the Norwegian wealth fund. It’s the largest single equity owner in the world and sets out to be the most transparent. She is therefore likely the most powerful person in the world of ESG.

In our podcast episode, Huw van Steenis and I discussed:

• How you can combine sustainability with the pursuit of returns
• The difference between the US and Europe when it comes to the energy transition
• How the fund takes action to divest and exclude companies on climate, enviromental and even tax grounds
• How NBIM conduct their reviews
• Issues with ESG ratings and how they can be improved
• Why companies pushing back targets paradoxically may be a sign of progress

Carine is uniquely placed to comment on the energy transition and all things relating to governance and this was a fascinating conversation.

Show Notes

Chris Mayer is the founder of Woodlock House Family Capital and the author of 100 Baggers: Stocks that Return 100-to-1 and How to Find Them. He has written several other books and formerly wrote an investing newsletter which led him to travel the world seeking investment ideas.

Studying the universe of 100 Baggers has led Chris to a clear set of investing principles which mean his universe of investible ideas is extremely limited and his fund owns just 11 stocks.

Our discussion covers his respect for family owned businesses, his emphasis on corporate culture and his focus on the very long term. He even rejected an institutional investor as a client because they wanted monthly performance.

Show notes

Lawrence Cunningham is the author of 20 books; an academic with over 60 publications; a legal expert; an accounting expert; a governance expert; a director on 3 quoted company boards; and a company adviser.

His most famous book is the Essays of Warren Buffett in which he extracts sections from the sage’s letters over decades and orders them by subject. In our conversation, he tells how he first met Mr Buffett, how the books came about, how he sends Mr Buffett a draft of each publication, and explains how and why the letters are so carefully crafted.

Few have studied Berkshire and particularly the letters as closely and he has some fascinating perspectives.

Peter Cowley is a successful angel investor. But it was his tragic private life which prompted this interview. Two of his three children lost to suicide; their mother died unexpectedly; his sister lost to alcoholism; his brother died aged 21 from cancer; two decades in recovery from alcoholism; and he has now been diagnosed with terminal Stage 4c cancer and statistically has 9 months to live.

In this interview, Peter calls himself fortunate. Since meeting Peter, not a day has passed that Steve has not thought about this remarkable man and day felt grateful for his lot. Hopefully the podcast will also make people aware of how common suicide is among young men.

Show Notes

Jonathan Ruffer is the founder of the eponymous asset management firm, a bold and successful investor (a combination unusual to survive, let alone thrive) and considers himself a financial historian. He remains the figurehead of the firm although has stepped back somewhat from the daily combat with markets. In this episode, he explains why he thinks the Yen could double, why the equities age is behind us, why inflation is here to stay and much more. And in a first for this podcast, Jonathan turns the tables and asks me the most difficult interview question of all time.