Archive

The losses of $2bn incurred by an allegedly rogue trader on the Delta One desk at UBS have again raised the subject of the (lack of) risk controls by banks dealing in opaque instruments, the need to separate investment and retail banking and the risks inherent in ETFs.

Investment Week - UBS debacle highlights dangers of ETFs

Terry Smith gives his account on News Corp, highlighting how extraordinary share arrangements insulate Rupert Murdoch from the repercussions of the company’s underperformance.

Investment Week - Murdoch should give up control of News Corp

This week there was a new development in the share buyback mass shareholder value destruction exercise which has gripped American companies and has some following in the UK.

When Mandy Rice-Davies was giving evidence at the trial of Stephen Ward, charged with living off the immoral earnings of Keeler and Rice-Davies, in the Profumo Affair, she made a famous riposte. When the prosecuting counsel pointed out that Lord Astor denied an affair or having even met her, she replied, "Well, he would, wouldn't he?" (often misquoted as "Well he would say that, wouldn't he?"). By 1979 this phrase had entered the third edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.

Terry Smith states that many exchange-traded funds (ETFs) do not contain a basket of the underlying securities or assets which they are attempting to track, and how there are obvious dangers in such an arrangement.

On 11th January I published my first annual letter to the holders of the Fundsmith Equity Fund. In it I levelled some criticisms at the investment fad for Exchange Traded Funds ("ETFs").

Almost 20 years on from publishing my book, Accounting for Growth, I am exposing another loophole in the accountancy rules which is allowing companies to appear to have created value when they have not.

At an Editorial Intelligence event, in association with the Financial Times, a panel debated "the Year Ahead". The event was chaired by Lionel Barber, the FT's Editor, and Terry Smith, Founder of Fundsmith, was joined on the panel by Lord Andrew Adonis, Gillian Tett and Baroness Shriti Vadera .

Just 18 days after the Fundsmith Equity Fund opened, the first takeover approach for a stock in the portfolio occurred with the news that KKR is in talks to buy Del Monte Foods.

Friday 8th October saw the UK release of the sequel to Oliver Stone's 1987 movie Wall Street which starred Michael Douglas in his Oscar winning role as Gordon Gekko.

On Wednesday 15th September we celebrated the 70th anniversary of Battle of Britain Day with the unveiling of the statue of Sir Keith Park in Waterloo Place, London.

As Mrs Moneypenny pointed out in her column on 11th Sept, the campaign was launched in that column three years to the day prior to the unveiling:

As stated before, our main focus at Fundsmith is on producing superior investment returns. However, fees produce a major drag on returns over time. I founded Fundsmith to offer a high quality portfolio of resilient global growth companies which we hold for the long term and for which we charge a reasonable fee with no hidden costs.

I don't want to focus on fees to the exclusion of all else - our main focus at Fundsmith is on delivering superior performance. However, we would like to point out the very meaningful drag that fees and charges have on investment performance.

There are many who disbelieve the simple arithmetic of the impact of hedge fund style 2 and 20% fees on the division of the investment proceeds between investor and fund manager. As demonstrated, if 2 and 20 were applied to Warren Buffett's investment performance, over 90% of the eventual value of the fund would accrue not to the investor, but to the manager.

Terry Smith writes that the Volcker Rule is necessary because there will always be banking crises, the secret is to try and stop them from being fatal.

Terry Smith gives his view on performance-linked bonuses and how the Financial Services ran straight into a firestorm of complaints when it published its draft code on remuneration in the financial services sector.

Terry Smith gives his views on the macro-economic environment in the UK ahead of Alistair Darling’s second budget.

Terry Smith states that there are some unpalatable facts which it is vital for the G20 leaders to understand if they are to tackle the financial crisis effectively.