Wealth Enhancement Speakers

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Full details of speakers in 2009 will appear here soon.

The Opportunities in Distressed Companies

Derek Hartland and Stephen Grinrod took the members through the various options and opportunities presented by distressed companies; they emphasized the importance of having a clear goal and well defined strategies agreed before embarking on such an investment along with a well defined time framework. It became clear that having the capabilities, resources, known how along with totally clarity on the decision parameters and a good management team in the wings are key to the success of the opening move. It was also clear that while offering potentially high returns there was the corresponding risks associated with this type of investment and a major factor to remember when considering this type of project is the investors apetite for risk.

SG hambro Private Bank

Chris Perkins and Christine Ross explained the benefits of insurance wrappers. These may appeal to an individual who is cash -rich and wants to maximise his income while allowing his capital to grow at a higher rate. It allows you to roll-up capital gains and defer the income tax on those gains for 20 years while enjoying upto 5% tax -free income on the original capital. The compounding effect of rolling up catital that grows at ,say,10% per annum tax-deferred rather than at a nett 6% makes a dramatic difference over 20 years. The effect is £1m grows to £6.72m gross rather than £3.2m nett.The benefit of using SG is that they employ not only bankers but also tax advisors who can advise you from the beginning with the requisite expertise.

Simon Brown

Ashcourt is a private client stockbroker. One of our members proposed Simon to speak to the group after having performed very well with our member's capital.Simon was known to our member for many years and has built up a strong relationship with our member.Simon isresponsible for running the Investment Team, which includes asset allocation and stock selection for all Ashcourt client portfolios, as well as managing the Pan-European Fund and Global Opportunities Fund on behalf of various investors.

He proposed a selection of small to medium sized AIM listed companies, who he has met personally, that will outperform the market due to their strong market positions in growing industries.

Several members of the group have invested in a diversified group of companies and seen good growth already.

Gary Tipper & Ed Fazakerley of Zeus Capital

Manchester-based Zeus are launching a £100m private equity fund to invest in small/medium sized regional companies.

Gary ran a highly successful private eqyuity fund with Aberdeen Murray Johnstone before joining Zeus.He believes that due to the large scale of funds that now exist,there are excellent opportunities for investing in businesses of less than £50m. The market shows that 90% of all MBOs have a vlaue of less than £50m and the North West, where they are situated, is the largest region by vloume and transactions.It is their long term track record of 32% IRR over 12 years that makes this an attractive proposition.

William Sporborg of Breeding Capital Plc

William, who has a background in corporate finance as well as having been an amateur jockey, himself, runs Breeding Capital. He has raised over £3m to invest in buying brood mares to sire foals to be sold for profit. His fund, apparently the first of it type to manage professionally the process of buying, breeding and selling horses, benefits from William having put together a top class team of racing professionals specialising in the study of bloodlines and in the breeding of top horses. One of his team runs Andrew Lloyd Webber's stud.He aims to achieve a 15%+ return conservatively per annum over 5 years.

Spread Betting - Cantor Index

Manus Cranny and David Buik from Cantor Index, one of Britain's most successful 'spread betting' companies and part of the huge US-based Cantor Fitzgerald money broking firm, discussed the theory and workings of this growing market. Essentially you are taking a bet on the direction of a share,commodity ,option over a finite period of time. It can useful if you strongly believe something is undervalued and will increase in the short bterm or if you want to hedge a particular share. It can also be used to investy a much smaller initial amount for a much greater percentage return than traditional equities. Not for the faint-hearted.

Paul Marson Chief Investment Officer of Goldman Sachs, the world’s leaving investment bank introduced their new Whitehall 2 Fund along with details of how it invests and what returns one can expect. The flagship fund, Whitehall 1, achieved a 19.9% internal rate of return per annum since 1991.

Achieving 200% Growth Over Five Years

Jeremy Attard-Manche introduced the Tell Fund and the international investment theme approach that underpins the outstanding performance of the Fund.

Venture Capital Trusts -  Matrix Group with Foresight Venture Partners

Glenn Hamilton of Matrix explained how VCTs operate and the keys to their success while Matt Taylor explained why the new Foresight VCT is going to perform as well as the current one (which is the best of all time).

Northern Cyprus Property Opportunities

David Barraclough highlighted the potential property investment opportunities in Northern Cyprus against the background of Turkey negotiating to joining the EU.

The Pathfinder Turnaround Fund

Chris Burford talked about his proposed turnaround fund in conjunction with YFM (Yorkshire Fund Managers Private Equity).  Chris is aiming to start a fund with YFM, targeting such companies, and is looking for private finance.

Hotbed Investments

Bernard Dale, Head of Private Equity at Hotbed introduced his company’s distinctive approach to syndicated investments in diversified fields one of the keys being how they qualified the Investment opportunities.

A New Approach to Equity Investment

Edward Hamilton-Ely of Schroders presented an alternative means of benefiting from the potential of capital growth from equity markets with significantly reduced risk.

Sinopia, Global Trend Fund and HSBC Sterling Reserve Bond

Charles Morris, Head of Absolute Return, HSBC Asset Management (Europe) Limited explained how The Global Trend Fund was launched in May 2005 plans to generate returns above cash by investing in a mixture of equities, fixed income and alternative assets.

SIPPS Opportunities  

John Metcalf of Pearson Jones Plc highlighted how members could take advantage of the changes to SIPPS regulations to benefit their heirs.

Investing Opportunities in Film Production -

David Wilkinson and Jim Dickinson of WRF Ltd introduced members to the investment opportunities and rewards of local film production.