Saw your comment the other day and thought that I would do some...

Saw your comment the other day and thought that I would do some research into it and look more closely at your issues - my comments below:

On the issue of finding new investments - They must have more deal flow than any of us retail holders would get. The question for all of us is that the pool of available investments is getting smaller each year. The big Superfunds and the like of the Canadian pension funds have been cherry-picking the great assets. . They have even opened an office in Australia - ( I wondered if by maybe having an Australian entity they could access the franking credits via the double tax agreement). The investments are substantial around C$13.5 billion or 2.5% of largest fund holdings are here. However I see that they are getting new assets - the question for me has been some confused commentary from directors. The first Investor meeting after Milton's and results showed there was a large cap portfolio. I was pretty comfortable with that as it looked like they were managing the portfolio as part of WHSP. Then the following year they sold a lot of those, this theme has continued. From a SOL shareholder perspective that made little sense. It almost looks like they decided that this merger was in fact a Capital raise and the easiest way to do it. It solved the wider Miltons shareholders issue by closing the gap to NTA and even giving them a small premium. For SOL shareholders , my opinion, is that it really did not benefit SOL other than to raise $3 billion and then pay CGT on the gap between cost and value. Not in my opinion in the interests of SOL shareholders.

So yes I think they get access to many deals and as they grow it will get larger - the gap between what they can access and even what other LIC's can access. I truly love this hybrid model (operating entities and investments).

Milton's wasn't good as I laid out above.

Pengana they are the largest shareholder - I think they own around 40%. The JV isn't and has not been working in my opinion. In the accounts to December 2023 Pengana a 50% JV holder recorded a loss of $1.124 million. Considering how short the fund has been going I am not surprised that SOL wanted out. Personally I am not a fan of Brendan Odea. Nothing concrete but I wasn't that impressed with Miltons either. If SOL hadn't purchased it it would looked just as old as the people who went to the presentations ( I include myself in that). That fund is now trying to raise $100 million via a share issue to public.

The private equity portfolio - Well I did not check your numbers but Private equity is very lumpy and as such its too early to judge. I hope they do well but then again I dont think they have as yet proven that they have the credibility to do this. The jury is still out. They may have done better to buy a stake in large PE funds.

Personally I think BKW is the cheaper entry into SOL.