Simon Hallett, former CIO of the $80 billion asset manager, Harding Loevner, describes his journey from Plymouth, England, to Oxford University and then Hong Kong before boldly heading to the USA.

Harding Loevner’s impressive 30 year track record in managing global equities is examined, with a discussion that covers behavioural biases, the need to restrict portfolio managers’ freedom, to the increasing reliance on quantitative disciplines to enhance the investment process.

Hallett explains why top-down thinking should be strictly limited in building an equity portfolio, why their firm has only 2 Bloomberg terminals and stock-price watching is actively discouraged. He also discusses the merits of being partially owned by Affiliated Managers Group (AMG). 

Finally he then explains his decision to buy Plymouth Argyle Football Club – heart over logic, possibly, but why the management of a football team and player selections have more in common with selecting stocks than you might think. Finally he gives some great advice to “keep your nose clean” and “ stay the course” – applicable for both football and investing!

To celebrate our latest interview, featuring Peter Davies of Lansdowne Partners, we're re-releasing this episode thanks to the similar themes discussed. Like Harding Loevner, Lansdowne Partners is focused on international equity investing. Both firms have benefitted from the post-2010 boom in high growth tech stocks. Additionally, both Peter and Simon have links to Oxford University, and both figures cite the sporting world as an inspiration for their investing strategy and philosophy. 

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