Chief Executive Officer of Montgomery Investment Management, David Buckland has over 30 years of industry experience.
David is a deeply knowledgeable and highly experienced financial services executive. Prior to joining Montgomery in 2012, David was CEO and Executive Director of Hunter Hall for 11 years, as well as a Director at JP Morgan in Sydney and London for eight years.
As people conduct more and more of their lives online and the world progressively moves towards being “all digital,” the retail industry is undergoing a significant change.
Consumers are increasingly looking for low prices for top quality goods, and online retailers–able to save on the costs of expensive prime rental locations and sales staff–are meeting this demand.
The growing digitalization of media such as music, books and films plays into this need, and together, these factors are helping to redefine the retail landscape.
Continue…
Free-to-air-TV is doing it tough.
Two of Australia’s highly respected and sought-after media executives, James Warburton from Ten Network and APN’s Brett Chenoweth, have lost their jobs in as many weeks.
Network Ten’s (ASX:TEN) strategic position appears confused and it is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Is it trying now to appeal to a broader demographic, where it is a clear number three; or will it return to the youth audience, where their move away from linear television is gaining traction?
Following on from the blog of 14 February 2013, I have been asked by a number of readers why I think Capital’s share of output as it all time high, and conversely why “Labour’s share of output has, in recent years, declined from 70% to 64%”.
I think there are three significant factors at work.
1. Globalisation has seen a structural decline in Western World manufacturing. The declining price of manufactured goods, in real terms, has ensured a weak bargaining positioning for labour. In Australia, for example, the Manufacturing Sector as a percentage of all workers has declined from 19% to only 9%, in the past thirty years;
Jennifer Hewitt’s article in last Thursday’s Australian Financial Review entitled “Swapping leaders 101” focused on the relatively sudden departures of RIO’s Tom Albanese and BHP’s Marius Kloppers. The Sydney Morning Herald claimed “outgoing BHP Billiton Chief Executive will take cash, shares and performance rights worth up to $75.2 million at current prices”.
We believe the timing of the departures was to draw attention away from the substantial erosion in returns and profit, however some discussion about remuneration is warranted.
Andrew Smithers, the author of Valuing Wall Street, makes the following point,
The Monadelphous Group (MND) is one of Australia’s most successful project management, construction, asset management and maintenance service companies focused on the Resource, Energy and Infrastructure sectors. Revenue, over the five years to June 2013, is forecast to jump from under $1.0 billion to $2.6 billion.
Mona’s interim report, released on Tuesday 19 February, revealed a more sober outlook from Fiscal 2014.
The Cisco White Paper, released recently, makes some extraordinary predictions over the next five years and and is well worth reading.
To summarise:
1. In 2012, global mobile traffic grew 70 per cent to 885 petabytes per month. By 2017, this will grow 13 times and surpass 11 exabytes per month, a compound annual growth rate of 66%;
The US S&P 500 recorded a multi-year low in March 2009, at 667 points.
Today the Index is at 1517 points, delivering a capital gain of 127 per cent in less than four years, or a compound annual average return of 23 per cent.
A significant reason for this rally is based on the fact “labour’s share of output” has, in recent years, declined from 70% to 64%.
Continue…
The Montgomery Fund was launched on 17 August 2012. In the period to 31 December 2012 The Fund delivered a return of 16.88%, after expenses.
Over the same period the S&P/ ASX 300 Accumulation Index appreciated by 8.68%.
Continue…
Despite the global economic slowdown, 2012 was a good year for investors in the major share markets.
The Australian All Ordinaries Index, was in the middle of the pack, appreciating 13.5 percent from 4,111.0 to 4664.6. Virtually the entire gain was recorded in the six months to December 2012.
Continue…
With the wipeout in the Billabong (BBG) share price, from a high of $14.00 in mid-2007, the Company has now received its third takeover bid in a year.
President of the America’s Division since 1998, Paul Naude, together with a consortium of financiers, have “dropped in” a $1.10 per share bid, valuing BBG at $527m. This is a slight premium to the deeply discounted 6/7 rights issue at $1.02 per share, which delivered $225m in mid-2012 for debt reduction purposes.
The Board’s response will be interesting. Recently appointed CEO, Launa Inman, has well developed plans in getting Billabong back into the competition.
We have been told there are pockets of operational excellence at Billabong, but these need to be scaled-up across the organisation. The severe under-spend on IT is also being addressed.
