Ann: Video update from Chief Investment Officer and Chairman, page-128

A couple of observations from a non-holder.

Hamish has always been a master of self-promotion and marketing during the last decade, and imo this was one of the reasons for the success of the business, coupled with his charisma as a salesman. But as an actual stock-picker I'd argue that is stock-picking ability is not great, and actually even average. The reckoning day was always coming given his personality and investment style.

The Brett Cairns departure was an absolute train-wreck example of inadequate corporate communication. Enough said on that.

People who argue that the media have no right to intrude on his personal life don't understand key person risk. There is massive key person risk with Magellan because he is the public face of the company and ultimately is in charge of the major investment decisions. If his ability to undertake these duties is in anyway compromised or diluted by external factors, clients and shareholders have a right to know.

There is clearly something going wrong with the Magellan corporate governance when the chief breezily announces 13 days before their biggest client pulls out the rug from under them that no-one had questioned Magellans' investment performance. Trust me, they would have seen this coming.

Hamish needs to learn to pull back and refrain from making sweeping statements on subjects he clearly knows very little about, such as vaccine technology. This is behavior that imo shows he believes he has transcended the normal ranks of fund managers and sees himself as some kind of all-knowing philanthropic social commentator/policy expert, when in reality he is straying far from his core skill set.

I can see the attraction for investors still, but unless Magellan can resolve the key person risk issue and the Board can show some cahoonas to pull Hamish and his ego back into line, there are way too many potentially fatal structural issues for me.