Portfolio Update
East Africa Tea Research Institute, Malawi, 2013 … happy days
It is sometimes only after leaving something you realise how good some of the functionality was. Stockopedia really does have very good portfolio management tools and I miss them.
I am still struggling to find a portfolio management tool which allow me to share my portfolio and infrequent trades with my readership without disclosing the actual amounts. I have come to the conclusion, I will have to code it myself. For some reason I have an image of Charles Archer’s excellent substack, an orange monkey and a laptop disappearing through the window.
I did discover that my broker, A J Bell, has a Morningstar feature which will give you a fair bit of information, but does not give you the profit and loss on trades, or when trades were entered and exited. I am not overly bothered by this, as I invest with a 2 to 5 year time horizon, and some of my investments like Investor AB (STO: INVE), Wheaton Precious Metals (TSX: WPM) and Brookfield (TSX: BN) I have held for a very long time. I have often found time can turn a dismal failure of timing into stunning success providing your initial thesis proves correct.
The basic themes outlined in December 2025 when I first started this Substack have not changed much, but the portfolio has been simplified and I have made a few disposals and a few additions. The themes remain:
Fiat Currency Debasement (Gold)
Copper
Uranium (and now other energy assets: O&G)
Gold & Silver Miners
Upgrading the grid
European Rearmament
and I have a fondness for engineers (equities that would be)
DISPOSALS
Wisdom Tree Physical Silver (LSE: PHSP) - recycled partly into silver miners
Vatterra Platinum (LSE: VALT) - Platinum chart looked on the turn and needed cash for O&G
Sibanye Stillwater (LSE: SBSW) - Platinum chart looked on the turn and needed cash for O&G
Robertet (FR: RBT) - needed cash for O&G
Borregaard (OSL: BRGo) - needed cash for O&G
British Aerospace (LSE.BA.) - too expensive now
Goodwin (LSE GDWN) Oh dear, what is there to say?
Melrose (LSE: MEL - missed targets and needed cash for O&G
ACQUISITIONS
These have been mentioned in a previous post:
Harbour Energy (LSE: HBR)
Ithaca Energy (LSE: ITH)
Var Energi (OSL: VAR)
Canadian Natural Resources (TSX: CNQ)
Yara (OSL: YAR)
As mentioned in a previous post, physical gold bullion.
Here are two PDFs which show the holdings in my ISA and my SIPP. As you can see, they are unhealthily orientated towards real assets and commodities: these are not what you would call well balanced diversified portfolios. The Financial Conduct Authority would surely ensure the return of your practicing certificate if you recommended this to a client! As Charles Archer, the author of “A Whisky with Charles” says with his inimitable humour: you have to be a special kind of moron to take financial advice from a Substack. Quite.
BTW Charles’s substack is wholeheartedly recommended, and particularly for his sense of humour.
Portfolios below:
Many thanks for this, Alastair. Thought provoking and essential, so always. I lived in East Africa for nearly 10 years - Uganda - and completely agree with your observations on the people. I miss them, and the tropics, a lot. I suppose you could always rejoin Stocko under a pseudonym...
Hi Alastair
I just wanted to say thanks for all of your insightful posts - they are a fascinating read.
Thanks also for sharing your portfolio. If it's okay I'd like to make a comment on 2 of those holdings:
1 - Prysmian.
I looked at this a few months ago and I really wanted to like it. I can see the growth story and where lots of future demand will come from. But once I throw in the ever-increasing capex and relatively stable margins over the last decade (I prefer rising profit margins) I decided that it was too rich for me.
Having said all that I'm keeping an eye on it as it's certainly going to be an exciting company over the next decade.
2 - Airtel.
This is another one I was hoping to like, but I've never quite had the chemistry that I was hoping for.
Whilst the cash generation looks decent, it seemed like a lot of this was coming from customer funds rather than surplus cash generation. Capex costs were also really high and they didn't seem like coming down anytime soon.
Having said all that I have a soft spot for East Africa having travelled extensively in the region 20 years ago (hat tip for your Malawi photo btw) and it's a part of the world that I hope continues to grow.
By coincidence at university I was also good friends with someone who is now in charge of one of the company's main divisions. I won't mention his name but he's an incredibly smart person and I can't ever imagine him not doing a stellar job.
The share price has risen a lot in the last year so my analysis has so far been very wrong. So who knows, maybe there's more to come?
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And now on a completely separate note, I do hope you'll reconsider re-joining Stockopedia. Your comments on that platform are missed.
Cheers
A