Page 38 - DIY Magazine September 2018

THE BRITISH INVESTOR PORTFOLIO UPDATE
After returning an impressive 42.7% in 2017 against
the 13% of his benchmark, the FTSE All-Share, things started slowly this year for Chriss McGlone Atkinson, aka the British Investor; has he managed to turn things around?
‘In summary, portfolio returns year to date have been 3.19% against my benchmark which returned 1.69%; I’ve swung from a 10% negative return to a 3% positive return, and since inception in August 2015 the portfolio has returned 70.55% against 22.30% for the All-Share.
The compound annual return for my portfolio is 20.09% going into my fourth year of investing. You can view the portfolio here.
It’s so much it’s harder to write when returns are so anaemic; I’m struggling to marry the passive element
of portfolio investment with writing regularly – I’ve had fewer ideas, and no doubt there is a link between this and the returns most of us have been getting. However, this has been a personal issue as I suffered a period of illness earlier in the year which unfortunately knocked me off-track on the blog front. However, now well on the road to recovery; I’ll be back!
I made no trades at all in Q2 2018, and I’m pleased about that; most of my holdings have posted reasonable recoveries since the end of March, which hopefully will continue.
A few milestones were hit; small victories, but I enjoyed them. I am back to break-even on both Next (NXT) and Howden Joinery (HWDN) - inception purchases in August 2015.
I know, anchoring to your buy price is a fools’ errand, but it cheered me up a bit.
But what about opportunity cost? I hear you ask; absolutely right - I could have sold at any point and redeployed those funds elsewhere.
However, for me the attraction of both businesses hasn’t changed - each commands a strong presence
in their respective industry, both are cash generative with strong fundamentals. Next seems to be weathering the retail storm far better than other businesses in recent weeks (see here and here).
So, time for a short update on my holdings:
AB Dynamics PLC: 178.88%; forward P/E 29.65
AB Dynamics is motoring ahead (see what I did there?) up 35% in Q2; a strong half-year report showed business ticking along nicely now that they’ve opened their new factory and offices.
In June they announced their first sale of the new advanced vehicle driving simulator; let’s hope this is the first of many.
Advanced Medical Solutions PLC: 68.55%; 32.38
Testament to the quality and reliability of this company that they’ve added 20% upside to their share price whilst simultaneously lowering their forward P/E by over six times earnings; I considered selling purely because its valuation is higher than the average of my portfolio, but I’m not doing it - it’s a quality business, and sometimes quality businesses get expensive.
Apple Inc: 63.42%; 16.29
Apple charges ahead in the race to become the first publicly-listed trillion dollar company; it was a mere 50bn away in June but it’ll get there; I won’t proclaim to have any unique insight on Apple -its quality is plain to see.
DIY Investor Magazine | Sep 2018 38