Investors Chronicle

On this week's Alpha podcast editor John Hughman talks to the IC's small cap specialist Simon Thompson about the outlook for global stock markets and the strategies he's using to identify companies fit for the Covid era.Click here to read Simon's latest Investors Chronicle column.If you don't subscribe to Alpha already, you can sign up for a four-week trial for just £4 by clicking on the following link: investorschronicle.co.uk/TryAlpha  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Boohoo’s ethical misdemeanours have not translated to poor sales or share price growth. But could the environmental and social concerns raised by the company’s recent enquiry have repercussions across the garment industry?   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The UK dividend bloodbath has been one of the major challenges facing investors in 2020 and the outlook remains far from certain. Blake Hutchins, co-manager of Trojan Income, a defensive and highly successful UK equity income fund, is well acquainted with all these issues. In this interview he tells us why there may still be hope for UK equity income, but also why investors do need to be more selective than ever to succeed in this market.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this week's Alpha podcast, John and Phil head to the shops to see which retailers are surviving – and even thriving – in the face of the pandemic. If you don't subscribe to Alpha already, you can sign up for a four week trial for just £4 by clicking on the following link: investorschronicle.co.uk/TryAlpha  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Are we ever going back to the office? Will working life return to normal when the threat of coronavirus has passed? How will businesses in the hospitality and travel sectors survive?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this week's IC Alpha Podcast John and Phil talk about two companies in the travel sector that have borne the brunt of Covid-19 and may have further pain to come, why lockdown is proving good news for one specialist retailer, and a distributor that's expanding despite the difficult economic backdrop.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Google searches for the word ‘staycation’ have spiked in 2020. Brits fearing unpleasant air travel, hostile international hosts or an unexpected two weeks of enforced quarantine on return to the UK have opted to holiday in these green and pleasant lands.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Government bonds were one of the only reliable portfolio diversifiers when equity markets crashed earlier this year, but they now face several pressing questions. Are they too expensive, and will they still work in the next sell-off? What will the future hold for bonds more generally?Mike Riddell, manager of the Allianz Strategic Bond fund, has successfully navigated recent bouts of volatility by taking a flexible approach to fixed income. In this interview, he tells us what the future might hold for the asset class and where he sees value (and risk).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this week's episode, John Hughman and resident analyst Phil Oakley discuss the state of play for the housebuilders with the help of this week's results from Redrow. Plus what Next can do in response to the evolving retail sector and how Ocado has found itself in the Covid-19 sweet spot. But is Phil convinced?If you don't subscribe to Alpha already, you can sign up for a four week trial for just £4 by clicking on the following link: investorschronicle.co.uk/TryAlpha  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The pub feels like just the right place to launch the Investors Chronicle’s brand new podcast, especially as the topic up for discussion in episode one is beer.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Professor John Kay has held a host of the UK’s leading economic advisory and academic positions. In early 2020, he published an incredibly prescient book alongside Lord Mervyn King which lays out the dangers of economic modelling when attempting to deal with crises. Reassuringly, Radical Uncertainty: Decision making for an unknowable future, shows that we can make good decisions, even in a very unreliable world.In this interview, Mary McDougall talks to Professor Kay about how he came to write his book, how its conclusions can be applied to the threats facing the world at the moment and whether or not he did indeed read all the sources in the book’s 39-page bibliography!Professor Kay also divulges his vast knowledge on the UK’s equity markets, building a pension, fighting climate change and what ESG should really be all about.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this week's new IC Alpha Podcast, John and Phil discuss the worrying outlook for the UK economy and the pound as a result of the government's disastrous handling of Covid-19 and now the final stages of Brexit negotiations. For companies exposed to the consumer economy this has brought mixed fortunes – as John and Phil discuss, strong numbers this week from Games Workshop and Frontier Development highlight the business models fit for the Covid economy – even if their high valuations give pause for thought. But for those like Fevertree Drinks, lockdown has proved a much greater challenge despite a leap in in-home drinking and expansion into the US – can it recover to live up to its shares premium rating?You can read more of Phil's thoughts on these companies – and others – in his weekly Alpha report. If you don't subscribe already, you can sign up for a four week trial for just £4 here investorschronicle.co.uk/TryAlpha  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode of the IC Interviews, editor John Hughman speaks to the magazine’s regular investment trust columnist John Baron.A former fund manager, John has provided updates on two live investment trust based portfolios for the Investors Chronicle since 2009, one focused on growth and the other on income.John has recently completed an updated version of his book, the Financial Times Guide to Investment Trusts: Unlocking the City's Best Kept Secret.In this interview, John explains why he favours investment trusts, how the techniques he uses to manage his portfolios have shielded them from the worst impacts of Covid-19, and why he’s top slicing technology and taking contrarian positions in commercial property and commodities.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For the vast majority of investors, the stock market remains primarily a place for making money work harder. But increasingly, environmental and social consciousness is playing a role in investment decisions.But a lack of clear guidelines on ESG reporting means there has been a rise in both companies and funds attempting to make themselves seem cleaner than they are - and life harder for investors that want to make their money genuinely work for good.  On this week's Investment Hour John Hughman and Megan Boxall discuss these sticky issues with associate editor Algy Hall, with some help from Ronald Cohen, famed venture capitalist, Peter Toogood, chief investment officer at retirement solutions provider Embark Group and Tom McGillycuddy, co-founder of impact investment app, Tickr.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Peter Toogood is the chief investment officer at retirement solutions provider Embark Group, having worked for 25 years in financial services including as an advisor, researcher and investment manager. In this podcast, we talk with him about the current market battle between growth and value, the rise (and sometime inconsistencies) of ESG, and Peter's own solution for the global debt pile.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

BT’s chief executive seems to have spent much of the last few weeks preparing his company for a hostile takeover approach. The fate awaiting BT and its shareholders raises questions about how the company has found itself in this sorry state. To answer that, we have to go back to the 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher had an agenda. In this week’s podcast Megan Boxall and John Hughman have been joined by Lauren Almeida to discuss privatisation and whether or not it has been a good thing for BT and the shareholders who supported its IPO.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Private equity has developed a bad reputation for extracting value from companies and then foisting their remnants on unsuspecting equity markets. At the same time Private Equity trusts have delivered returns for investors that have beaten some of the world's best performing indices and offer access to areas of industry that equity markets just cannot reach.On this week's investment hour, John Hughman and Dave Baxter are joined by Phil Oakley to discuss the pros and cons of investing in Private Equity and the companies they invest in, while James Norrington talks to Augmentum Fintech's chief executive Tim Levene about his fund's approach to investing in one of the fastest growing areas of technology.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The platform market has changed a lot since Hargreaves Lansdown launched in the UK nearly 40 years ago. The market's growth in products, information and legitimate online brokers is surely only a good thing? The answer is tricky. More options have helped bring prices down, but also make it harder for investors to make a decision, whale scams and security remain hot issues. In this episode of the Investment Hour, Megan talks to Mary McDougall about the range of investment platforms available and John discusses the results of the listed providers with Phil Oakley. Also featuring interviews with Richard Wilson, chief executive of Interative Investor; Adam Dodds, founder of app platform, Freetrade; and Felicia Hjertman, founder of new DIY Platform, Vinco, which she expects to launch in early 2021.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Last week was big for US tech - with a fiery Congressional hearing and bumper quarterly earnings. “With the exception of Amazon, all of these companies are not expensive stocks now”, argues Walter Price, portfolio manager of Allianz Technology Trust. In this podcast, Mr Price tells us his views on growth, regulation, and China’s moves to replace the US as the dominant world superpower.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

 Coronavirus has intensified the growing animosity between the world’s two great superpowers, China and the US, and worries are mounting that the confrontational rhetoric may at some point turn a cold war into a hot one. But the virus has also stretched Western economies to their limits and cast into doubt just how they can fund the cost of the new arms race that may just be starting.On this week’s Investment Hour, Megan Boxall and John Hughman are joined by the IC’s defence correspondent Nilushi Karunaratne and industrial correspondent Alex Janiaud to discuss the outlook for the defence sector and what this means for investors.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.