14-Jan-2021:  In the cover letter accompanying their December 2020 Investment Update or "LIC Snapshot" as they now call it, Geoff Wilson (from WAM Funds) said today:

Dear Fellow Shareholder, 

We are pleased to announce the December 2020 Investment Update for our listed investment companies.

Markets rallied in the final month of a very turbulent year. The Trump Presidency is coming to a disgraceful end with the storming of the United States Capitol building and a second impeachment of the outgoing President, while a new strain of the coronavirus and rising case numbers in the US and Europe weigh on healthcare systems. The vaccine roll-out and the US stimulus package approval supported equity markets in December.

The S&P 500 Index rose by 3.7%, the NASDAQ Composite Index 5.7%, the UK FTSE 100 Index 3.1%, the Euro Stoxx 600 Index 2.5%, Japan’s TOPIX Index 2.8% and China’s CSI 300 Index 5.1% in local terms, while the MSCI World Index (AUD) declined 0.5% for the month. In Australia, a coronavirus outbreak in Sydney and localised lockdowns during the month caused concern among investors ahead of the summer holiday period. The Australian dollar rose 9.7% against the US dollar in 2020, underpinned by rising commodity prices, with iron ore reaching a nine-year high in December. The S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Accumulation Index rose 1.8% for the month. 

Our listed investment companies' 2020 performance

We are pleased to deliver strong absolute and relative investment portfolio performance during the challenging social, economic and financial landscape that we witnessed this year. Our six equity-focused listed investment companies’ (LIC) investment portfolios outperformed* their respective benchmarks in the 2020 calendar year and the 2021 financial year to date.

Supported by strong risk-adjusted outperformance and profits reserves available, WAM Leaders Limited (ASX: WLE) and WAM Global Limited (ASX: WGB) announced FY2021 fully franked interim dividend guidance of 3.5 cents per share and 5.0 cents per share respectively. 

Based on their 13 January 2021 share prices, these represent annualised grossed-up fully franked dividend yields of 7.5%# for WAM Leaders and 6.0%# for WAM Global.

WAM Leaders has 24.3 cents per share in profits reserve**, representing 3.5 years of dividend coverage for shareholders.   WAM Global has 43.0 cents per share in profits reserve**, representing 4.3 years of dividend coverage for shareholders. We look forward to sharing the interim results for all seven of our LICs in the coming weeks. 

* Investment portfolio performance and index returns are before expenses, fees and taxes.

# Grossed-up dividend yield includes the benefit of franking credits and is based on a tax rate of 30.0%.

** The profits reserve is before the fully franked interim dividend guidance.

--- end of excerpt ---  You can access their full December 2020 report here.

[I currently hold WGB and WMI, and I have held WAM, WMA (previously BAF), WAA, WAX and WLE previously, and may do so again in the future.]

19-Sep-2020:  https://www.livewiremarkets.com/wires/matt-haupt-s-customised-shopping-list-that-identifies-winners

WAM Leaders Lead Portfolio Manager Matthew Haupt knows what a challenging time it’s been for investors, especially following the recent reporting season that saw a number of companies either postpone or cut dividends – in some cases by up to 30%. COVID-19 eroded many a balance sheet leaving boards overly cautious and wanting to preserve their capital.

However, in his WAM Leaders fund, not only was the dividend increased, but it was increased by 15%, a remarkable achievement in this environment. And there is a number of reasons why this occurred – not least was Matt’s customised shopping list, compiled using a simple checklist of companies’ share prices based on their GFC levels. This strategy helped take the emotion out of buying – and selling – and the results speak for themselves.

In this Q&A, Matt Haupt explains his team’s checklist in more detail along with the other factors that allowed the fund to deliver a great positive performance in a very challenging year. 

--- click on the link above for the video and the transcript ---

[I hold WLE shares.]

17-Sep-2020:  WAM Leaders FY2021 interim dividend guidance - FF 3.5 cps

Matt and John are doing a great job with WLE at WAM Funds.  I hold WLE, and also WMI, WGB and BAF - which will soon be trading under the ticker code WMA (WAM Alternative Assets).  I do NOT currently hold WAM Capital (WAM), WAX or WAA.

10-July-2020:  I listened in on the WAM Leaders (WLE) Investor Q&A Call this morning, and it was time well spent.  Click here for the slide pack.  They had lead PM Matt Haupt on the call, plus John Ayoub and Geoff Wilson, and it was great to hear them answer questions without notice on anything and everything, even on some positions that they don't even hold in WLE.  

For the first time ever, they listed their top 30 positions, in order of position size, and included the portfolio weightings for all of them as well.  I am not a fan of Australia's big 4 banks, so was not particularly happy (as a WLE shareholder) to see the banks feature in that list, with NAB being their #1 position.  NAB in my opinion is the worst of the 4.  However, I know that Johnny and Matt have a LOT more knowledge on the sector and on the individual banks than I do.  I just look at them (the 4 banks) in terms of historical performance and the headwinds that I see them facing in the near and mid-term, but I know that Matt and John are very active and move in and out of these companies quickly and regularly, and adjust their weightings as they think it appropriate, and I guess they see some short-term upside for NAB in particular at this point in time.  In reality, as a large cap fund, they are likely to hold the banks most of the time, and it would just be the weightings in them that would change.

I have a soft spot for mining and materials stocks personally, particularly at this point in the cycle, so I was pleased to see the following in the WLE top 30:

• BHP, 6.2% of WLE
• WES, 2.6%
• RIO, 2.4%
• NCM, 2.2%
• OZL, 2.0%
• FMG, 1.8%
• AWC, 1.7%
• WSA, 1.7%
• S32, 1.0%

And I was also interested that the only gold miner in their top 30 now is Newcrest (NCM), the one I do NOT hold.  Of that list of 9 above, I do hold WES and S32.  I almost bought back into WSA a couple of days ago actually, but I bought back into IGO instead (earlier today).  IGO looks to have more upside from current levels than WSA, in terms of nickel miners and how much each of them have recovered from their March lows.  IGO also has that gold interest (30% of Tropicana) in addition to their world-class Nova nickel / copper / cobalt mine.  My exposure to WLE is therefore quite complimentary to my own direct holdings. 

In copper I hold SFR, they hold OZL.  I don't hold any iron ore stocks directly, although I do hold ILU (mineral sands) and Iluka do also own a royalty over all of the iron ore that BHP produce from Mining Area C (the MAC royalty) - which they are planning to spin out into a separate company later this year or next year.  WLE hold all of the major iron ore stocks (BHP, RIO, FMG).  In nickel, they hold WSA.  I hold IGO.  We both hold S32 (alumina/aluminium, manganese, nickel, met coal, silver, lead, zinc).  S32 are selling their energy coal assets this year.  I also hold RVR (zinc).  They also hold AWC (alumina / aluminium). 

In gold, they hold NCM, and I hold NST, EVN, SAR, RRL, SBM, PNR, plus a handful of gold explorers and developers.

In mining and engineering services, WLE and I both hold DOW, and I also hold MND, NWH, MAH, and smaller companies (way too small for WLE) like LYL, GNG, SRG, SXE and BSA.  WLE has worked out to be very complimentary to my own direct positions at this point, although I do note that their postions and position sizes do change regularly, so this is really just a snapshot in time in terms of their holdings and weightings.

Geoff mentioned that they do have a couple of years worth of dividends in their WLE profit reserve and that it was their intention to at least maintain their dividend but hopefully to increase it.  As usual, he added that this would of course be up to the full board at the appropriate time.  However, as the Board Chairman - and the founder of the company - I reckon he might have a decent say in what happens there.

WLE is paying a good dividend, with a gross yield of over 8% (when grossed up to include franking credits - for those of us who can make use of those) and, importantly, with so much in their profit reserve, that fully franked yield is entirely sustainable.  They are also a good way to gain exposure to Australian large caps, for those of us who spend more time following and investing in smaller companies. 

Their fees are clearly higher than you would pay if you instead held an index-tracker ETF like VAS (follows the ASX300) or A200, QOZ, GEAR, IOZ STW (those track the ASX200) or SFY (ASX50) or ILC (ASX20), or more selective ETFs like MVW, VLC, AUST, MVOL, RVL or UBA, but with WLE you do get active management which has shown to add value.  Click here for a fee comparison.

Matt and John are doing a pretty good job of running WLE so far.

06-July-2020:  Significant outperformance, 15.0% FF dividend increase

21-May-2020:  https://wilsonassetmanagement.com.au/vault/the-opportunities-in-volatility/

James Marlay (from Livewiremarkets.com) interviews Matt Haupt, the lead portfolio manager of WAM Leaders (WLE), about how he has been positioning the LIC through this period, and what sectors he likes right now.  He's turned bullish on the banks again.  And he likes gold.

Disclosure:  I hold WLE shares.

Matt Haupt is the lead portfolio manager of WAM Leaders (WLE) and he is one of the guests in the latest  "Buy Hold Sell" segment recorded on Wednesday (26-Feb-2020) for Livewire Markets - in the middle of this past week (with its daily market sell-offs).

This one is titled: Stocks for sale: What these 2 fundies are buying

https://www.livewiremarkets.com/wires/stocks-for-sale-here-s-your-shopping-list

The other "fundie" is Ben Clark from TMS Capital, and he's been buying stocks that have been "Coronaed" like Wisetech and Sydney Airport.  Ben also liked Invocare's result and he talked up IMF Bentham quite convincingly.

Matt thought the market got Amcor's result wrong, and Challenger's result surprised him by how good it was (Matt had sold out of Challenger prior to their result unfortunately, but he thinks they might buy back in if CGF keep pulling back along with the market).  Matt also thought the big 4 bank's results surprised - on the upside, especially CBA, but he's still wary of the valuation.  WLE has been topping up on resources stocks like FMG and RIO during the past week because they expect that China will likely stimulate via fixed asset investment to try to provide immediate stimulus, rather than the fiscal and other types of stimulus that take longer to work through the system, and fixed asset investment stimulus will create more demand for iron ore in particular, and base metals also.

They both discussed the impact of Covid-19, and how hard it is to try to guess or estimate what will likely happen - since there is such a wide range of possible outcomes.  They also discussed cash levels in their respective funds.

31-Jan-2020:  WLE - interim profit up 186% and 22.6% increase in FF div

Highlights:

• 185.8% increase in operating profit before tax
• 3.25 cents per share fully franked interim dividend, a 22.6% increase
• 27.3% investment portfolio performance in CY2019, outperforming the Index by 3.9%

Disclosure:  I hold WLE shares.  It is currently my preferred exposure to the larger cap stocks on the ASX - mostly ASX100 companies with some ASX200 companies as well.  I personally mostly invest directly in companies further down the food chain where I believe I may have (or may be able to gain) an edge via research or experience over some who do less research or have less experience.  For the vast majority of the larger companies on the ASX, there is far more focus on them from brokers, analysts and investors, and far less chance of serious mispricing of their shares.  For exposure to the bulk of those larger cap stocks, I don't mind using an active fund manager like Matt Haupt at WAMG (Wilson Asset Management Group), who I've met a few times, spoken with, and have confidence in.  His performance is improving and there's every chance that the NTA-discount in the SP of WLE will continue to narrow.  In time, I would expect WLE to trade at around NTA, or possibly at an NTA-premium as WAM & WAX tend to do (two other LICs managed by WAMG).  That gives you two ways to win.  The SP can increase in line with performance, and it can increase further as the SP moves closer to the NTA of the fund.  The same argument can be made for WGB (WAM Global), which I also hold.  Catriona Burns is also doing a good job as the lead portfolio manager (PM) at WGB.

13-Jun-2019:  May 2019 Investment Update and NTA Report

WLE's before tax NTA only rose 0.93% in May - from $1.2039 to $1.2151, despite ending the month with 26.1% of the portfolio in "financials" including the big 4 banks plus Macquarie Bank.

They also featured a number of resources companies in their top 20, including BHP, FMG (Fortescue), ILU (Iluka), NCM (Newcrest), NST (Northern Star), RIO & WPL (Woodside).

AFI, ARG & MLT all performed better, with less active management.  Back at WAMG, WLE's stablemates had mixed results.  WAX's NTA rose +1.86%, WMI's NTA rose a tiny bit (they were almost flat), but the Net Tangible Assets of WAM, WAA & WGB all lost ground in May.  However the share prices of all 6 of WIlson's LICs rose.

This is how they finished May (the SP rises from April 30th to May 31st):

• WAM, +3.0% (WAM Capital)
• WLE, +0.5%(WAM Leaders)
• WGB, +5.5% (WAM Global)
• WAX, +3.9% (WAM Research)
• WAA, +2.5% (WAM Active)
• WMI, +5.4% (WAM Microcap)

Funny old world...

http://www.livewiremarkets.com/wires/wilson-the-return-of-global-growth

That's a link to a 23rd May 2019 article published this week on Livewiremarkets.com (Livewire) in which Geoff talks about what has happened over the past 6 months to turn him from being ultra-bearish to now moderately bullish ("My prognosis was wrong"). 

Each of Geoff's lead PMs (portfolio managers) also talk about their own views and discuss some individual holdings that they have within their own portfolios and why they like them (and why they hold them).  Those PMs are Catriona Burns (responsible for WAM Global, WGB), Matt Haupt (WAM Leaders, WLE), Oscar Oberg (WAM, WAX & WMI) and Martin Hickson (WAM, WAA & WMI).  [Note: Oscar is the PM of WAX - WAM Research, Marty is the PM of WAA - WAM Active, and they jointly manage WAM & WMI - WAM Capital and WAM Microcap]. 

Geoff is the CIO (chief investment officer) with the overall responsibility for the performance of the 6 LICs that they manage, but Geoff's role is more hands-off nowadays, having set up the investing framework, philosophy and rules, he sits in on the weekly meetings and monitors their progress, but he mostly leaves the stockpicking to those 4 now.  He has other things that keep him busy, like media and takeovers.

Their previous CIO, Chris Stott, has recently retired, but is still a director on the board of a couple of those LICs.

This Livewire article is mostly distilled from the presentations given at the recent WAM Roadshow that has been happening over the past fortnight around Australia's largest cities, but it's presented in a nice, easy-to-follow way, and does contain a couple of additional bits that have been added in.

Disclosure:  I currently hold WAM, WAA, WAX, WLE and WGB.  I have also held WMI in the past, and may well do so again in the future.  I've become a little concerned with the performance of Oscar and Marty since Chris left, especially over the December-January period when they seriously underperformed, especially with WAM & WAX.  I'm happy enough with Catriona and the WGB portfolio, and I think Matt is doing a good job with WLE, which is my largest holding currently.  It's interesting that the two Wilson LICs that I'm most bullish about (WLE & WGB) are both trading at NTA-discounts, while the ones trading at NTA-premiums are the ones that have performed the worst (WAX & WAM) more recently - and the ones I hold the least amount of shares in currently.  I sold most of my WAM & WAX - and all of my WMI - earlier last year when they were still trading at NTA-premiums of over 20% in the case of both WAX & WAM and I can't remember what WMI's NTA-premium was, but it was significant.  Those premiums have all since reduced significantly.  Ideally, buy good quality LICs when their outlook is bright, they have tailwinds, and they are trading at NTA discounts.  I would argue that only two of Wilson's six LICs tick all those boxes currently.

Changing the subject now, here's another interesting Livewire link:

http://www.livewiremarkets.com/wires/ben-griffiths-markets-are-at-an-inflection-point

When Isaac Newton first posited that an object in motion would stay in motion unless acted upon, he probably wasn't thinking of stock markets. But hundreds of years later, the same principle has been adapted for investors; or "the trend is your friend" as it's more commonly stated. While this rule of thumb can be pretty handy, there are rare moments in financial markets where everything can turn on a dime, and suddenly that trend doesn't look so friendly. George Soros called these times 'inflection points', and according to Ben Griffiths, Principal and Portfolio Manager at Eley Griffiths, we stand at one of these crossroads today.

“It is classic exhaustion price action. Bulls aren’t sure if they’re convinced anymore, and bears are in the process of giving up after that strong run-up from December. It’s what markets do best at turning point; they confound the bulls, they trip up the bears, and they generally exhaust investors.”

In this week’s episode of The Rules of Investing podcast, Ben explains why the Australian economy could be doing better than it seems, how he knew it was time to start buying shares near the bottom of the GFC, and three simple investing rules that’ve served him well. 

19-Nov-2019:  November 2019 Shareholder Presentation

Note: This Presentation is related to the WAM Group (WAM Funds) + FG (Future Generation) Funds November 2019 Australian Roadshow (which I'll be attending here in Adelaide next Wednesday) and covers all of WAM Group's 6 LICs:  WAM Global (WGB), WAM Leaders (WLE), WAM Capital (WAM), WAM Research (WAX), WAM Microcap (WMI) and WAM Active (WAA).

This one is for the Sydney leg of the roadshow, which includes their AGMs, but similar Presentations will be made at all of the venues they attend during the roadshow over the next couple of weeks.

15-Nov-2019:  Livewire Interview: Matt Haupt loves macro, big stocks and fast cars

Matt Haupt is the lead PM (portfolio manager) for Wilson's Leaders Fund (WLE) and in this November 2019 interview by Livewire's co-founder James Marlay, Matt explains what he believes is the most powerful macro influence on equity markets, delivers his post reporting verdict on the banks and shares a simple action that can have a meaningful impact on your investment performance.

Disclosure:  I hold WLE shares.

The WAMG funds are well run and have mostly outperformed their benchmarks, certainly since inception, although they have their rough patches.  WAX, WMI, WAA & WAM all underperformed over the past 6 months due to their PMs (Portfolio Managers: Oscar Oberg & Martin Hickson) cashing up in December (to around 50% cash) and failing to redeploy that cash into the market rapidly enough in January (2019) when the market bounced back up sharply on the back of the US Fed's turnaround (when they made it clear they weren't planning to gradually raise interest rates any more in the near term and also lightened up on the quantitative tightening) and the fresh Chinese economic stimulis measures began to show traction.  The result was they lost a lot of money during that period (Dec/Jan) and now need to make that up,  By contrast, the PM of WLE, Matthew Haupt, never went to more than 15% cash, and WLE ended December with a cash weighting of just below 10%, so he has done a lot better with WLE than all of their other 5 LICs over that period.  He also views the big 4 Australian banks as more trading stocks than core holdings, which is a interesting viewpoint, and has paid off for him so far.  He also dislikes the 2nd tier (smaller) banks in Australia and feels they have competitive disadvantages compared to the big 4.  He rarely holds them unless he sees a particular catalyst that should cause a near-term positive re-rating.  He has been holding a lot of gold stocks recently as well as BHP, RIO, OZL, WSA & IGO, and he's done well there too.  All in all, I think Matt is doing well with WLE, and it's a core holding of mine.  It provides large cap exposure but with an active manager, rather than the more passive styles that you get with Argo (ARG), AFIC (AFI) or Milton (MLT) who tend to hug the index a lot more.

WLE (WAM Leaders) is one of six LICs (Listed Investment Companies) managed by Wilson Asset Management Group (WAMG).  WLE focusses on larger companies, predominantly in the ASX100, and most of their positions are in the ASX50.  

They are currently (as at Friday 17th May 2019) trading at a 10% discount to their April 30th pre-tax NTA - which was $1.23.  WLE closed on Friday at $1.105.  It would be reasonable to expect a little bit of a rise today (Monday 20th May 2019) considering Labor has just lost the unlosable Federal Election, partly on the back of their policy of changing the refundability of franking credits for a large number of Australians.  With the Libs now set to retain government, that issue has been put to bed for at least another 3 years (and quite probably longer), and WAMG's founder and CIO, Geoff Wilson, who is also the Chairman of WLE, was a very vocal opponent of Labor's failed policy on franking credit changes.  He was the first to coin the phrase "Retirement Tax" which was picked up by most of the opponents to the policy and most of the independents and minor party senators who in most cases also pledged to vote against the changes should Labor win the election and try to introduce legislation to bring into effect their poorly thought out and badly structured policy (a little editorial licence here thank you, those views expressed here are not necessarily those of Strawman.com owners or staff or even necessarily the views of the majority of Strawman users, although I suspect that most people who hold dividend paying shares would prefer the status quo).  Anyway, bank shares might have a little bounce today, as might Telstra and other stocks viewed as "yield" or "income" stocks.  WLE, ARG, AFI, MLT and some of the larger LICs who hold bank shares and other large cap income stocks might also do reasonably well on the back of Labor's defeat.  WLE look good here as long as you can buy them below their last reported NTA, and, as I said, they closed Friday at around 10% below their last reported NTA (net tangible asset backing).