Inside the Rope with David Clark

Steve Tucker former CEO of MLC, and current Koda Capital Chairman joins David in this episode to discuss the evolution of advice and the importance it carries for high net worth individuals. Steve and David also touch on the transition from vertically integrated financial advice business models into the independent advice firms of today. As Chief Executive Officer of MLC until 2013, Steve was responsible for all of NAB’s Wealth businesses including MLC, NAB Private Wealth, and JBWere, with combined revenues exceeding $1bn per annum and over 5,000 staff. Steve has extensive financial and investment advice experience and has been a vocal and effective champion of reform and cultural transformation within the wealth management industry. Additionally, he is a director of the Banking and Finance Oath, and the chairman of Urbis.

Rajeev Gupta of the Alium Alpha Fund joins David to discuss his career to date, the history of the Alium Alpha Fund, and the businesses that it invests in. In what Raj calls a "Crossover Fund", he explains how the Alium Alpha fund focuses on investing in both private & public companies; with a particular focus on providing later-stage funding to Technology & Innovative companies intending to list on the ASX in the future. The fund targets an annualized return of 20-25%. Rajeev has 20 years of experience analysing, investing & building technology companies. Rajeev began his investment career at Goldman Sachs, where he worked for almost a decade in the investment group in Hong Kong, Singapore & New York with a focus on listed & unlisted technology companies. Rajeev then utilised his technology investment experience as a portfolio manager at both Tribeca & Merricks Capital where he ran global technology funds. He then built his own 25-person technology startup called Geckolife, before establishing Alium Capital. Rajeev has an Honours degree in Finance & Econometrics from the University of Sydney.

Richard Quin of Bentham joins David to discuss the history of Bentham Asset Management, including its spin-off from Credit Suisse, along with the various credit strategies that it manages today. Bentham Asset Management is a specialist global fixed interest and credit investment manager. Bentham actively manages a number of high yielding funds with varying risk profiles. The portfolios are designed to generate income while diversifying risk in global credit markets. Richard Quin is the CIO & Principal for Bentham Asset Management. Prior to this, he was a Director and Head of the APAC division of the Credit Investment Group for Credit Suisse Alternative Investments. Richard spent nine years within the Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) fixed income team as a Credit Portfolio Manager, where he established and managed Bentham's current high yield, global income and syndicated loan funds.

Justin joins David again to provide an update on the Ibex Israel strategy, a strategy that has returned 13.4% to the year ending November 2020 (in USD). Justin and David discuss the impact of COVID on Israeli companies, along with the restrictions on foreign investment and the opportunities that this provides. Justin also touches on the opportunities being found across the Israeli Technology sector, such as cyber and enterprise technologies; along with the acceleration of their adoption as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Justin is the Founder and Managing Partner at Ibex Investors, a Denver-based investment firm. Prior to Ibex, Justin worked at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. in both the private equity and investment banking groups in New York and London. Justin has served on the Board of Directors of several non-profits including the Anti-Defamation League and Colorado Public Radio.

David speaks with Paul Bassat of Square Peg Capital, a firm that invests in early-stage technology companies across Australia, Israel and South-East Asia, such as Canva, Fiverr & Athena Home Loans. Before starting Square Peg, Paul was a corporate lawyer who went on to achieve well-known success in founding Seek, the marketplace and HR company, a company that now employs more than 1,000 people in Australia and over 10,000 people around the world. Square Peg was launched in 2012 to fill the void in the Australian venture capital space. At the time of launch, there were minimal venture capital funds in Australia, however, there was a growing abundance of impressive entrepreneurs starting influential businesses that needed support. Since then, Square Peg has invested in around 40 companies and has between $1.4 and $1.5bn in funds under management. They are currently in the process of closing their 4th fund.

In this episode, David speaks with Chris Andrews, the Chief Investment Officer at La Trobe Financial. La Trobe Financial manages a book of mortgage-backed loans on behalf of investors aiming to receive returns over those provided by traditional cash alternatives in exchange for an acceptable level of risk. David and Chris discuss La Trobe's flagship product the 12-month term account, which as at the 24th of November, offers investors a return of 4.35% p.a. net of all fees. This $3.5bn strategy is comprised of over 6,000 first ranking secured mortgages across Australia with a maximum LVR of 75% and as at the 24th November has an average LVR of 63%. Since its inception in 2002, the strategy has not lost any investor’s capital. As Chief Investment Officer at La Trobe, Chris oversees $12bn of investment opportunities each year, of which La Trobe settles approximately $5.5bn to 6bn whilst maintaining a strict level of discipline.

John Hempton, the fund manager and founder of Bronte Capital, returns to discuss the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. He reflects on initial miscalculations and the unpredictable nature of human behavior in investment strategies. The conversation shifts to value investing's challenges, particularly in light of technological changes, and recent insights into tobacco investments, examining risks and potential opportunities. Hempton's candid views on market dynamics and the socio-economic factors influencing investments offer a fascinating perspective on navigating today's economy.

David and George discuss how investors can invest ethically in the fixed income space. Impact investing allows investors to not only generate a financial return but also contribute positively to society and/or the environment. In George's words, impact investing is the way of the future. The Regnan Credit Impact Trust is a strategy which aims to deliver returns of 1-3% pa over a rolling 3 year period whilst investing in opportunities that are assessed on both Regnan's ESG and MSCI sustainability analytics. The strategy has an active tilt towards green (ie climate), social and sustainability bonds -- all of which support positive societal and/or environmental outcomes (including the advancement of UN's Sustainable Development Goals).

Dr Craig Collie of Regal Funds Management joins David on this episode of Inside the Rope to discuss his career to date, starting as a medical doctor in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom before transitioning into financial services and ultimately his role at Regal. Craig manages a sleeve of Regal's Market Neutral strategy, being long-short global healthcare and more recently a sleeve of Regal's listed investment trust. These sleeves have a diverse universe of global stocks, with holdings in pre-revenue biotech, medical device, hospital, lab provider and health insurance companies. David and Craig also touch on COVID-19 and in particular the process behind developing a vaccine as well as the associated economic outcomes of being successful in doing so.

In this episode, David chats with Rob Morrison from Barwon Investment Partners to discuss the Barwon Healthcare Property Fund. In seeking to identify areas of the property market that Rob believes are under-researched, Barwon found that the healthcare sector had lower levels of institutional investment despite its fast growth and 10% allocation to Australian GDP. As a result, establishing a Healthcare Property Fund has allowed Barwon to provide investors with income returns of over 7% p.a. combined with additional capital growth over 1% p.a since inception in October 2014 to March 2020. Founded in 2006, after Rob's time at AMP, Barwon concentrates on both property & private equity. Barwon has strategies in Healthcare property, property finance with a focus on first mortgages & global strategies (Listed private equity & listed private debt).