Ann: Funds Under Management - April 2023, page-106

I do appreciate the different perspectives, keeping it simple is valid.

I was watching Kerr Neilson at the last AGM again.

Kerr said at the AGM that the underperformance of the funds was caused by a U.S. stock market bubble and low interest rates but that the environment looks to have changed so that these are no longer a headwind. He then refers to the problems of asset allocation if you own an ETF, the timing decision which I would call a pricing or relative valuation decision.

He also made clear his "beef" with Andrew Clifford which is that PTM has several fund managers who are extremely good investors but improving co-ordination and reducing stridency could improve overall returns.

This seems consistent with my previous complaint that Andrew pushed Bianca under the bus when asked about the performance of the Biotech Fund, as the COO Andrew should take ownership for things that he delegated to others and provide better support to someone who is a Biotech specialist from short-sellers who could have spotted and avoided the bubble. It's a theory, evidence is sketchy.

The markets are pricing in further modest outflows and a stagnating business when the outlook I think is for a cyclical turnaround, that will or will not play out and squizz the numbers man can crunch what it may mean.

As shareholders of the company we should push to see Andrew's feet to the fire on this issue a little more, in a nice way he's working hard and no doubt is a good person.

Just banging on about why the shareprice is down and that staff are overpaid understandable but not particularly useful - in fact it's distinctly unhelpful in that it's distracting from their focus on running the business in the best way possible for the long term.