Master Investors James Faulkner

As the world's first listed space tech fund, Seraphim Space Investment Trust has a first mover advantage in a sector that is starting to get crowded.Private equity, sovereign wealth funds and climate-related funds are now appreciating what Seraphim had predicted years ago in that space tech provides the utilities required for sustainability, digitisation, climate protection and national defence.Managing director and chief executive Mark Boggett says with its 126 strong space tech company portfolio Seraphim is "the most prolific and most active investor in the space market".He talks about how economies are intrinsically linked to space related activities. "If you were to switch off the satellites", he says, "the loss to the U.K. over seven days would be $7 billion."Boggett says the industry globally is worth $450 billion a year, and a few of the companies in Seraphim’s portfolio have already achieved single digit billion dollar valuations and "there's plenty of scope for them to be valued in tens of billions and beyond during the course of the next few years and we believe that there is evidence they are heading in that direction".He and his team aspire to, and are accustomed to big numbers and big concepts.  Chairman Will Whitehorn was a founding member of Virgin Galactic and advisor to Sir Richard Branson as was Seraphim’s Richard McCall. The roll call of entrepreneurial greats is a force that is strong within the company and includes Maureen Haverty, who was COO at space startup Apollo Fusion that was acquired for $145M. For more investment and economics analysis plus inspiration please visit our website masterinvestor.co.uk (https://masterinvestor.co.uk/). 

With economic indicators suggesting the U.K. isn't in as dire a condition as predicted, inflation tamed and the possibility of an interest rate cut just who are the beneficiaries? In this Master Investor webinar, Jonathan Davis talks to Sarah Lowther about how a reduction in the Bank of England's base rate could provide a fillip to the stock markets as it offers relief to companies with stretched balance sheets and stimulates the property market. They discuss the perils of elevating fund managers into rock stars and unpick both the open-ended funds and investment trusts that are doing well and the renewables vehicles on course for a rebound. Davis calls out JP Morgan's Global Growth & Income Trust, Greencoat UK Wind and Bluefield Solar Income Fund as investments that have provided solid returns.  "I wouldn't be surprised if you buy them and own them, you're going to get something like nine or ten percent compounded return over a period of years," says Davis who reminds investors that at the same time "You're doing something for the country. You're doing something for climate change." Davis suggests the second quarter of 2024 may not see an extension of the optimism that has buoyed UK markets so far this year. He does though encourage adopting a long-term strategy to combat any short-term frothiness in stock exchanges. For more investment and economics analysis plus inspiration please visit our website masterinvestor.co.uk (https://masterinvestor.co.uk/). 

EnSilica Plc's (LON: ENSI) aim is to be recognised as Europe's leading ASIC supplier. ASIC is the acronym for Application Specific Integrated Circuits which helps the analog world marry with the digital. ASICs currently represent approximately seven percent of a silicon chip market forecast to grow to a trillion dollars by 2030. Within that space EnSilica customises ASICs for customers, and the bespoke benefits include better data security and supply chain resilience, which in a supply chain challenged world is a huge bonus. For more investment and economics analysis plus inspiration please visit our website masterinvestor.co.uk (https://masterinvestor.co.uk/). 

The fifteen acquisitions that Trident Royalties Plc (LON:TRR) has made in just over three years has been described as a "blistering pace" by its chief executive Adam Davidson.  Positioned in the resource sector, Trident acquires royalties in mining companies, and in doing so is entitled to a percentage of generated revenue. "The mining royalty sector is not tiny,' says Davidson. "It's $80 billion in aggregate market cap of mining companies around the world." While other royalty companies focus mainly on gold, Davidson realised there was a gap in the market for "a multibillion-dollar market cap diversified mining royalty company that's got iron ore and copper and zinc as well as gold." Trident is building a pure diversified royalty business. This year it's made five acquisitions across copper, gold, silver, and mineral sands and Davidson is wanting to add nickel and zinc to the portfolio.  "We're trying to come up with an index fund style exposure. You can get your exposure to real assets to mining commodities through your holding and Trident because we get a royalty exposure across the whole depth and breadth of the sector." With a robust register of institutional shareholders, the board is in alignment with its investors with directors buying shares when they can.  The ultimate ambition according to Davidson is to build more scale within the portfolio and announce an inaugural dividend "when we can put in place a policy that's progressive."For more investment and economics analysis plus inspiration please visit our website masterinvestor.co.uk (https://masterinvestor.co.uk/). 

In addition to expanding resources to accommodate its growing register of really large and regular customers, Cerillion PLC (LON:CER) has added Generative AI into its product set which gives clients more tools to monetise existing infrastructure. "It's going to be revolutionary across the board", says founder and chief executive Louis Hall, and he should know. He's been with the billing, charging and customer relationship management software solutions provider for over two decades and has been quick to adopt and provide initiatives for customers looking for economical solutions that can be deployed quickly. "A task that might take a good product marketing person, a couple of days sometimes can be completed within minutes", says Hall who recognises that AI is just as useful a tool for Cerillion itself 'in terms of productivity in developing and maintaining software'. With the most recent figures showing record financial performance, the GenAI offering is one device dedicated to protecting Cerillion's long-term recurring revenue growth.For more investment and economics analysis plus inspiration please visit our website masterinvestor.co.uk (https://masterinvestor.co.uk/). 

Manx Financial Group PLC (LON: MFX) celebrated a financial services first in October 2023 when its Conister Bank became the first Isle of Man bank authorised to accept deposits in the United Kingdom. Chief executive Douglas Grant says being awarded a UK Branch Banking Licence demonstrated regulatory recognition of the company's "really transparent operating business model based on sound economics". Expansion of the group's overall model says Grant will come through diversification. It will come from organic growth, acquisition and backing management teams. "We've got almost like an incubator kind of theory", enthuses Grant who references an FX business the company backed from 'zero' which now "makes a million pounds a year for us". Depositors also have the company's back with Conister Bank passing on interest rate increases to its savers. While that magnanimous gesture resulted in corporate margin contraction, more importantly it made for happy customers.For more investment and economics analysis plus inspiration please visit our website masterinvestor.co.uk (https://masterinvestor.co.uk).