Today, Bain Capital is one of the world’s largest private multi-asset investing firms. In this conversation we have the opportunity to explore their investment approach and dig down into the important factors in private credit and special situations. Jonathan dissects why he believes investing is not a game of predictions, and elaborates on the importance of “pricing risk versus understanding uncertainty”. He talks about the example of investing in Virgin Australia and analyses their wider approach to the capital structure of a firm. He also explains how they are organised, the value of the partnership, and why top-down overvaluation of a market like the US does not mean there is a shortage of global investment opportunities.  Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn The Money Maze Podcast is sponsored by Schroders, Bremont Watches, LiveTrade and Mintus.

Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, discusses his upbringing, work experience at Bell Labs, and founding Vista Equity Partners. He explains the importance of software and describes today's epoch as the '4th Industrial Revolution'. He explores investment opportunities in the private market and technology sectors, and the role of enterprise software in various industries. He also compares private equity and public equity, and highlights the importance of communication and challenges faced by African-Americans.

In the second of our series on private equity, we are going to discuss one of Europe’s premier operators. Established as Schroder Ventures 35 years ago, the firm evolved into Permira in 1997. Today they have more than €60bn under management, employ over 450 people and operate in 16 offices worldwide. Permira has backed over 300 businesses; many of them, like Hugo Boss, Dr. Martens and McAfee software, are household names. Tara Alhadeff, Partner responsible for brand strategy in the consumer space, discusses Permira’s approach, and in particular why ‘heritage brands need a different lens’ and ‘why, with heritage brands, magic can happen’. She discusses the examples of Dr. Martens and Golden Goose, both current investments, and references the past deals of Hugo Boss and Valentino. Tara talks about the need for long-term custody of great brands and why in some cases the size of the brand is bigger than the size of the business. She also discusses the importance of management, the relationship between Permira and portfolio companies, and how they think about exits. Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn The Money Maze Podcast is sponsored by Schroders, Bremont Watches, LiveTrade and Mintus.

 Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn In this Private Equity Miniseries, we examine why P.E. has grown to become such a significant artery in both the investment world and wider economy. We discuss if this growth is secular, and an investment environment which continues to lead to rethinks of asset classes available for investors. In this episode, I am delighted to speak to Robert Hamilton Kelly, Global Co-Head of Petershill Partners (part of Goldman Sachs Asset Management). They have raised over $10bn of P.E. capital since 2007, investing in private equity and alternatives businesses at the GP level. Robert explains how and why Petershill own their investments and the characteristics they seek. He speaks about their approach to partnering with firms and the mutual benefits that develop, whilst also explaining the value of permanent capital. He talks about some of their transactions, their decision to list in London, how investors have assessed the valuation case and why he is excited by the long term opportunities he believes are available through their approach. The Money Maze Podcast is sponsored by Schroders, Bremont Watches and LiveTrade. Schroders is a global investment and wealth manager, with a purpose to provide excellent investment performance to clients, through active investment management. Bremont is an award-winning British company that produces beautifully engineered chronometers, designed to appeal to those who share the appreciation of a beautiful mechanical wristwatch. LiveTrade has changed the way fine wine is bought and sold worldwide. You can instantly buy and sell - or place bids and offers on - key wines from Bordeaux, Champagne, Italy and other world regions.

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn In an investing world where the “new thing” can too easily grab investor attention, sometimes it’s the case that an institution, especially one almost 200 years old, may be considered less relevant. So in this episode we welcome on Sir Nigel Wilson, one of the longest serving FTSE 100 CEOs. He was knighted for his contributions to finance & regional development, and for running the 2nd largest institutional asset manager in Europe. Sir Nigel Wilson discusses the business today, and how it has evolved. He explains their asset management and asset origination, marrying long-term capital with a strategic vision. He also covers their investments in key areas of infrastructure, housing, and the growing pension risk transfer market. He goes on to explain their approach to inclusive capitalism, their expansion overseas, how the market views their valuation, the stock’s important yield and why he has had such long tenure as a CEO. The Money Maze Podcast is sponsored by Schroders, Bremont Watches and LiveTrade. Schroders is a global investment and wealth manager, with a purpose to provide excellent investment performance to clients, through active investment management. Bremont is an award-winning British company that produces beautifully engineered chronometers, designed to appeal to those who share the appreciation of a beautiful mechanical wristwatch. LiveTrade has changed the way fine wine is bought and sold worldwide. You can instantly buy and sell - or place bids and offers on - key wines from Bordeaux, Champagne, Italy and other world regions.

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn Ray Dalio has described today’s guest, “as a vacuum cleaner of learning”, and in this episode Karen Karniol-Tambour exhibits a formidable grasp of the challenges of today’s investing environment. The conversation begins with a review of the current monetary challenge facing the Fed and leads into the dilemma for investors weaned on variations of the 60/40 benchmark. She explains Bridgewater’s enthusiasm for inflation protection, for owning important exposure to broad commodities, through to the role gold should play. At the same time she explains succinctly why US equities might be the worst performing asset class in the decade ahead. She discusses why currencies could be an important source of return in a world of lacklustre performance, in a re-visit of the 1970s and 1980s. Karen finally explains how Bridgewater think about the systematic and fundamental way of approaching sustainable investing, as well as the sustainable fund that they have developed. The Money Maze Podcast is sponsored by Schroders, Bremont Watches and LiveTrade. Schroders is a global investment and wealth manager, with a purpose to provide excellent investment performance to clients, through active investment management. Bremont is an award-winning British company that produces beautifully engineered chronometers, designed to appeal to those who share the appreciation of a beautiful mechanical wristwatch. LiveTrade has changed the way fine wine is bought and sold worldwide. You can instantly buy and sell - or place bids and offers on - key wines from Bordeaux, Champagne, Italy and other world regions.

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn To celebrate our new sponsorship with LiveTrade, Bordeaux Index's new world-leading fine wine trading platform, we're pleased to be replaying our episode with Gary Boom. Originally recorded last summer, he discusses why he started the business and examines the investment opportunities in the fine wine and spirits market.  In this episode Gary Boom, CEO of Bordeaux Index starts by explaining how the poorly organised, past its sell-by- date old model of wine trading has been revolutionised by Bordeaux Index over the last 20 years, with the introduction of scale, liquidity and expertise underscoring the investment attributes of fine wines and whiskies. The conversation examines long term data provided by Credit Suisse who found that post-World War Two, collectible wines have delivered returns of circa 10% nominal, and real returns of around 7% USD (per annum) . Gary discusses the composition of returns and the indices used to measure them, and explains why consumption creates a virtuous circle, where replacement and scarcity provide strong tailwinds. He talks about the liquidity provided by Live Trade, which they established and which provides narrow bid/ask spreads in over 500 wines. He talks about the Chinese influence in buying high-end Bordeaux wines, the Champagne and Burgundy markets’ evolution as well as how challenges around counterfeiting are being met. With reference to the late Stephen Spurrier, he discusses the rise of some of the great new world wines which wines he believes will prove good investments and how family offices and wealthy individuals can build significant portfolios of wine to take advantage of its lower correlation to other assets. He speaks about climate impact on wine producing regions, his gloomy view on UK wines and why Bollinger Group has taken a stake in their business. Finally he talks about why wine has proved and continues to be a great career for both sexes, some advice for today’s youth, and whose wines and their owners he would most like to meet and drink.

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn Today we have a different conversation. Michael Lewis and Simon Brewer go back to graduating from the LSE in 1985, when they were both seeking a place on the fabled Salomon Brothers training programme. Michael’s success in securing that job allowed the world to have the enduring classic, ‘Liar’s Poker’, and from there to write 16 best sellers (three of which have been made into major Hollywood films). His new book, ‘Premonition: A Pandemic Story’, tells the enthralling tale of the US pandemic preparations that started under President Bush, but which failed when COVID-19 struck, thanks to a mixture of institutional and political failings. Michael brings the cumulative missteps to life by narrating the story of the real people involved, their extraordinary decisions, and what went wrong. He continues this fascinating conversation by discussing two of his other books, ‘The Undoing Project’, and ‘Moneyball’, and explains how decision making is driven by varying degrees of data and/or human interactions - from sport to finance – resulting in unpredictable consequences. The Money Maze Podcast is sponsored by Schroders, LiveTrade and Bremont Watches. Schroders is a global investment and wealth manager, with a purpose to provide excellent investment performance to clients, through active investment management. Bremont is an award-winning British company that produces beautifully engineered chronometers, designed to appeal to those who share the appreciation of a beautiful mechanical wristwatch. LiveTrade has changed the way fine wine is bought and sold worldwide. You can instantly buy and sell - or place bids and offers on - key wines from Bordeaux, Champagne, Italy and other world regions.

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn The world of quantitative investing is a varied one, ranging from “statistical arbitrage” funds that seek to exploit miniscule and often fleeting market mispricings, to systematically exploiting timeless return patterns. Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) is in the latter camp. Founded by Rex Sinquefield and David Booth - two pioneers of index funds - DFA primarily harnesses “factors” that drive market returns in the long run. Here, Savina Rizova, Global Head of Research at DFA, explores the world of multi-factor investing with the FT’s Robin Wigglesworth.  Savina was recently named as one of 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance by the magazine Barron’s, and was nominated by none other than Robert Merton, a Nobel laureate in economics. Merton described the Bulgarian-born quantitative researcher as a standout in his more than 50 years of working with some of the best quantitative analysts and investors in the field of financial and economic research applied to real-world solutions. In this conversation, Savina helps clarify the often muddied terms surrounding factor investing, and reveals the uncomfortable truth that many of these market-beating signals are nothing more than an artifice of data mining.  Savina also explains why DFA is excited about the opportunities in systematic fixed income investing, and covers the firm’s decision to jump into the ETF industry and build its own in-house “direct indexing” business (it now competes head-to-head with investment giants like Vanguard, BlackRock and Morgan Stanley on this front).  The avid petrol-head also explains why Formula One is an entirely natural interest for any quant, given its combination of technology, data and human skill! The Money Maze Podcast is sponsored by Schroders and Bremont Watches. Schroders is a global investment and wealth manager, with a purpose to provide excellent investment performance to clients, through active investment management. Bremont is an award-winning British company that produces beautifully engineered chronometers, designed to appeal to those who share the appreciation of a beautiful mechanical wristwatch.

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn Man Group is one of the world’s biggest hedge fund managers, and by some distance the largest listed one, with $148.6bn of assets under management. But the crown jewel of the City institution is Man AHL, a quantitative investment firm that alone manages over $57bn.  AHL was initially started by three pioneers of systematic investing, Mike Adam, David Harding and Martin Lueck. Today, its band of programmers, data scientists and algorithmic traders are overseen by Russell Korgaonkar, who was named Man AHL’s chief investment officer in 2020, alongside Man AHL CEO Matthew Sargaison. If Russell had had his way, he would have been lighting up Formula One or the Premier League. But sadly his sporting talent didn’t quite match his aptitude for mathematics, and after a degree in physics at Oxford he joined Man AHL as a researcher in 2001. However, as Russell stresses in this conversation with the FT’s Robin Wigglesworth, it is a misconception that the cultural hinterland of quants consists solely of chess and vintage computer games.  Another misunderstanding is that quants can relax on the beach while the machines do all the work. As Russell explains, successful systematic investing is hard work, requiring continual refinement of models and sniffing out new sources of returns in the chaos of financial markets. The Money Maze Podcast is sponsored by Schroders and Bremont Watches. Schroders is a global investment and wealth manager, with a purpose to provide excellent investment performance to clients, through active investment management. Bremont is an award-winning British company that produces beautifully engineered chronometers, designed to appeal to those who share the appreciation of a beautiful mechanical wristwatch.