The importance of evolution: “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change”

Brickwood Asset Management is a dedicated value equities boutique, founded in 2024. Fund Managers Ben Whitmore, Kevin Murphy and Dermot Murphy have a combined investment experience of over 60 years dedicated to value investing.

Value investing has stood the test of time, but the team at Brickwood believes that there are always improvements to be made and lessons to be learnt. They believe that the process and portfolio construction must evolve and improve to capture the value premium. Ben Whitmore will discuss the evolution of the process and how they have implemented this into the recently launched TM Brickwood UK Value Fund, whilst remaining dedicated to value investing.

Navigating 2025: The Case for Global Government Bonds

In an uncertain world, with risks from trade tariffs, geopolitical tensions and above-target inflation clouding the outlook, Colchester Global Investors sees value opportunities in global government bonds on account of divergent economic and monetary policy paths across major economies. In this session, Head of Investment Management, Europe & Americas, Cian O’Brien, will demonstrate how Colchester’s real yield investment approach allows them to build high quality, liquid portfolios that maintain the diversification benefits of government debt, whilst taking advantage of opportunities where they find them across developed and emerging markets.

Absolute Return Credit

Co-Founders and Co-Portfolio Managers at US firm Concise Capital Management, Glenn Koach and Tom Krasner will introduce their absolute return credit fund. A short duration high yield fund, focused on smaller issuance in the high yield space (often overlooked by the bigger managers), with a unique hedging strategy via the Russell 2000 and a high sharpe ratio, this fund has a low correlation to both credit and equities offering an interesting and differentiated option for portfolios.

Outsized Returns Come from Doing Non-Obvious Things

Langdon Portfolio Manager, Greg Dean, will explore why traditional screening methods, and simply finding a compounder, may lead to disappointing future investment results. Instead, he will highlight Langdon's process and criteria to identify non-obvious compounders.

Real Yields in Global Emerging Markets

Launched in June 2022, Pacific North of South EM Equity Income Opportunities is managed by Robert Holmes, Partner and Portfolio Manager at North of South Capital. The strategy looks to achieve total shareholder returns and takes an unconstrained approach to Long Only Global Emerging Market Equities. Robert will show how this limited capacity strategy looks across the market cap spectrum to provide a real yield for clients.

North of South manage over USD 4bn in Long Only Emerging Market Equities for a global client base. They have employed a ‘Quality’ Value approach and differentiated focus on Country Cost of Capital since 2011 and have always favoured companies with sustainable dividend yields.

The Next Growth Wave: How Utilities and Infrastructure Are Powering the Future

Utilities and infrastructure businesses are entering a significant new growth phase with capital expenditures rising to upgrade aging assets and modernise to meet the new needs created by the electrification of economies. After 20 years of flat power demand in the OECD markets, power consumption is expected to increase 40% by 2040. Jean-Hugues de Lamaze, lead portfolio manager of Ecofin’s listed infrastructure strategy [and the London-listed investment trust Ecofin Global Utilities and Infrastructure Trusts plc], believes a combination of renewables and 24/7 technologies, such as nuclear or natural gas, will meet this demand and that with de-risked business models, returns on investment will be strong. He foresees similar demand dynamics will be evident in water, environmental services and transport infrastructure. He expects stock valuations, which remain low on average, will appreciate as these businesses prove their potential.