Investor Insights

There is an auction process (of sorts) happening for Uniti Wireless (ASX:UWL), and it appears contested with two interested parties emerging to date.   Should there be more? The current contenders First up was Morrison & Co. initially pitching a $4. 50 proposal and UWL’s board awarded Morrison an exclusive due diligence period of four weeks for its efforts.

  In this video extract from our recent webinar, Polen Capital’s Damon Ficklin shares how the Polen Capital team construct their portfolios using the strategy of investing across the growth spectrum. To achieve a mid-teens earnings per share growth target, they look at a range of different types of growth companies across this spectrum.

The Treasurer delivered the annual Federal Budget this week, largely supportive of SMEs and individuals in the wake of inflationary pressures now hitting businesses and consumers across a multitude of goods and services.

  In this week’s video insight David discusses how the current confusing market conditions have most investors sitting on their hands watching it play out, although domestic and international super-funds, infrastructure funds and private equity groups will be using this market confusion to make proposals and takeovers bids for more interesting relatively secure cashflow plays.

With COVID-19 travel restrictions beginning to ease, the Montgomery Small Companies Fund has been adding to its investments in ASX listed travel businesses.   In particular, we like the look of Alliance Aviation Services, Corporate Travel Management, Flight Centre and Webjet, which should all do well as travel rebounds.

With the 2022-23 Budget around the corner, the Government has announced cashflow support and red tape reductions for SMEs. SME support 1 Treasury this week has announced cash flow support and red tape reductions for small and medium businesses (SMEs).

We have just hosted the team from Polen Capital in Sydney and Rob Forker, Portfolio Manager of the Polen Capital Global Small and Mid Cap Fund, selected two companies to highlight. While it’s been a challenging start for the Fund from a unit price perspective, the portfolio companies are performing well at an operational level.

U. S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell addressed the National Association of Business Economists last night, providing a clear picture of the Fed’s view of the economy, the impact of Russia’s invasion and the likely path forward for monetary policy. As it has important implications for investors it is essential listening or reading.

  In this week’s video insight Roger identifies why it is important for investors to contemplate the implications for investment markets of the conflict with Russia and Ukraine resolving quickly or being long and protracted. According to research conducted by UBS, in past periods when inflation is high and growth slows to a moderate level the U. S.

This current economic environment is heating up, with employment and inflation levels reaching all time highs in the post pandemic environment. Monetary policy intervention may come sooner rather than later.

Right now, many in the financial markets are expecting a two percentage point bump in interest rates by June next year.   But I have my doubts. The RBA is unlikely to raise rates meaningfully until annual wage growth rises above three per cent – which is a long way off.

In only a few short weeks, the investing landscape has changed, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the cosying-up by President Vladimir Putin to China’s Xi Jinping.   How this plays out, only time will tell.