Exclusive interview with Codan CEO

Exclusive interview with Codan CEO

There are usually several opportunities for institutional investors to meet with any Australian company’s management during conferences or as they do the rounds following their results.

I have always felt that these meetings however, although useful are not optimal, and I prefer to go out and meet with management on their turf.

There are a few advantages to meeting management at their offices, compared to meeting during organised roadshows and conferences:

• Management is generally more relaxed on their “home territory” and hence the conversations are generally less scripted or rehearsed.
• Generally, only the CEO and CFO, along with the Investor Relations rep attend a roadshow. These people are generally the most knowledgeable about the whole business, but they are often not responsible for the daily running of the various divisions. Meeting divisional heads can be very useful to get a deeper understanding of a company.
• It’s almost impossible to gauge the culture of an organisation without actually being there.

Visiting a company often provides more ‘intangible’ information that may reinforce or disprove ‘desk-based’ analysis.

As readers of the blog probably recall, Codan, an Australian technology company based in Adelaide is a company that The Montgomery Fund has owned for quite some time. A couple of weeks ago, Roger and I visited Codan’s head office and I took the opportunity to bring a camera to film Roger talking to their CEO Donald McGurk for a special edition of our Video Insights.

Please enjoy!

If you would like to learn more about Codan, you can read my previous post here. 

The Montgomery Funds own shares in Codan. This article was prepared 19 June 2018 with the information we have today, and our view may change. It does not constitute formal advice or professional investment advice. If you wish to trade Codan you should seek financial advice.