PTM is a cyclical, not a Kodak - people who think it is...

PTM is a cyclical, not a Kodak - people who think it is structurally challenged are using the decline in the share price for their idea of value as is often the case.
I found the article below from March 2009 on the Intelligent Investor website.

"Platinum Asset Management’s interim profit was slightly better than expected, mainly thanks to foreign exchange gains. Profit fell 34% to $64.7m on revenues that declined 33% to $111.6m. A fully franked interim dividend of 8 cents (ex date not yet known) was declared.Platinum fund investors withdrew $1.6bn from its funds over the six months to 31 December. As if to prove Kerr Neilson’s lament that investors always seem to exit at the worst possible moment, they demonstrated spectacularly bad timing. Platinum’s range of funds generated positive investment performance of $0.8bn over the period, equivalent to a 5.4% increase over funds under management at 30 June 2008. World markets fell 11% in Australian dollar terms over the half-year, so the strong performance of Platinum’s funds was nothing short of astonishing.The performance in January continued the trend. The International Fund, for example, rose 14.3% over the six months to 31 January (compared with its benchmark’s fall of 10.1%). And Platinum’s former laggard, the Japan Fund, is now up a sizzling 26.7% over the past six months (compared to a benchmark return of 6.9%). If these returns don’t attract financial advisers and their clients to the funds at some point, we’ve no idea what will. Platinum’s second half is seasonally a little weaker but, assuming it maintains funds under management at its 31 December levels of $14.2bn, the company should produce a profit of about $54m. Stripping out the $8m in foreign exchange gains, that would mean earnings per share of about 20 cents a share for 2009, placing it on a prospective PER of 15.When markets recover, Platinum will likely get the double benefit of improved investment performance combined with a surge in fund inflows. We’re attending the results presentation later today, but we’re not expecting any surprises. The stock is down 14% since 25 Nov 08 (Buy – $3.40) and we remain confident about our BUY recommendation."

The subsequent 14 years of low interest rates to juice asset prices has created the idea that the U.S. market can consistently deliver high returns.

Personally I think the strength of the mania in AI is a sign that it is brittle and that low inflation with low unemployment is very unlikely, that even high inflation and unemployment is a possibility as we've repeated all the mistakes that led up to the 1970's stagflation and added new ones.

All we can say for certain is that people who pay high prices for the bubble assets in the U.S. today are guaranteed poor long term returns and that iff. PTM can guide it's funds into a safe harbour for the storm then holders of PTM stock will also benefit from their client's success.