Hear from Ray David and Joe Koh, Portfolio Managers of our Long-Short 130/30 Quality Fund, as they share insights on the trends and risks.
Fund Updates
27 Mar 2025Fund Updates
13 Feb 20253 Insights In 3 Minutes: Market Insights January
Markets never stand still.
As we start 2025, we’ve seen a strong rebound in many financial markets, but key risks remain. In this short video, our Managing Director and CIO Michael Skinner explores three critical areas shaping the year:
1. Interest Rate Expectations
2. Sector Rotations: Winners and Losers in 2025
3. Global Markets: Diverging Paths
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Investment Strategy
4 Feb 2025Lessons Learned – Risk Management
At Blackwattle Investment Partners, we believe in sharing the stories behind our mistakes because these lessons drive both personal and professional growth.
Rather than shy away from mistakes, we embrace them as learning opportunities.
Here’s a story from our Portfolio Manager, Daniel Broeren, relating to investments during the Covid-19 era. Dan highlights the importance of effective risk management within both process and culture.
To view the livewire article please click here
Article
30 Jan 20253 Quality Stocks for 2025
Hear from our Blackwattle Mid Cap Quality team as they focus on investing in high-quality businesses over the longer term. In the Livewire article below they discuss three high-quality stocks, diversified across industries, that they believe are well-placed in 2025.
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Article
3 Jan 2025The Existential Risk Australia’s Rock Star Investors Are Facing
Our Portfolio Manager and Partner, Ray David and our Blackwattle Investment Partners’ Large Cap Quality team, provide insights into current market movements.
Ray highlights that:
“Index changes and the growth of momentum investing is having a disproportionate impact on company valuations,” says Blackwattle Investment Partners portfolio manager Ray David, who carries around a chart from Macquarie that shows index funds now account for 22 per cent of ASX 200 ownership – up from 13 per cent a decade ago.
David says market prices are increasingly set by passive investment flows, thematic ETFs and larger wholesale pools of money, leading to things like the “irrational exuberance” at CBA. Active managers – kings of the market 10 or 20 years ago – have fallen in the pecking order. Surely, that affects share prices.
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Article
17 Dec 2024Fund Manager 2024 Wrapped – The Rise of Artificial Intelligence
As the year wraps up, we discuss seven big themes for ASX Investors in 2024, and the outlook for 2025.
The biggest theme this year was, “Artificial Intelligence (AI): The Rise of the Machines”.
Blackwattle Large Cap Portfolio Manager, Ray David, detail ASX beneficiaries poised to outperform in 2025, which extends beyond data centres and developers, but to data rich ASX companies and even the implications for electricity generation.
Pivotable moments in 2024 include Google DeepMind’s CEO, Demis Hassabis, announcing an ambitious $100 billion investment in AI tools, and OpenAI’s valuation soaring to $157 billion.
There were plenty of examples on show for ASX companies investing in AI, signaling a renaissance in business innovation driven by generative AI. This includes applications in:
Rio Tinto (RIO): Analyze historical exploration data.
Commonwealth Bank (CBA): Resolving 15,000+ transaction disputes.
Suncorp Group (SUN): Deployed AI to manage claims progress.
Sonic Healthcare (SHL): AI for faster disease diagnosis and detection.
IT Services: Review and summarize legal agreements.
Please click the link to view more
Fund Updates
12 Dec 2024Proceed With Caution In These Stocks In 2025
Hear from our CIO Michael Skinner sharing his views on the Australian Market, noting the ASX 200’s 3.8% rise in November. He sees continued consumer spending and asset price growth but warns of risks from stretched valuations and geopolitical tensions.
Michael highlights technology stocks like Xero (ASX: XRO) as promising for 2025, citing revenue growth and disciplined cost management. However, he advises caution with expensive financials, indicating a struggle with current valuations.
Thank you Andrew Geoghegan and ausbiz for your support.
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Investment Strategy
3 Dec 2024Lessons Learned – Business Fundamentals
At Blackwattle Investment Partners, we believe in sharing the stories behind our mistakes because these lessons drive both personal and professional growth.
Rather than shy away from mistakes, we embrace them as learning opportunities.
Here’s a story from our Portfolio Manager, Joe Koh, discussing an investment decision he made early in his career and key takeaways from his experience.
Article
2 Dec 2024WiseTech, Xero Help ASX Tech Sector Beat Nasdaq
Joanne Tran from the Australian Financial Review discusses Technology investment in Australia with Tim Riordan and our Mid Cap Quality Team who share their own insights noted below:
Blackwattle Investment Partners portfolio manager Tim Riordan owns Xero and Life360 among other technology stocks in his mid-caps fund and has been overweight the sector.
The money manager cited robust financial metrics as one of the reasons for the strong momentum behind ASX-listed technology businesses. Other reasons include the poor performance of Australia’s mining sector which has prompted investors to look elsewhere for returns.
“They continue to present as very attractive and strong business models,” Mr Riordan said. “They’ve got multiple operational levers available to them to achieve their growth outcomes. It’s a really attractive dynamic.”
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Fund Updates
29 Nov 2024Conversations on the Couch: Episode 7 (Empire & Blackwattle)
Conversations on the Couch: This latest interview with Michael Skinner, Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at Blackwattle Investment Partners marked 12 months of our partnership, and highlighted the unique approach Empire Financial Group takes to sourcing investment opportunities for our client portfolios.
This discussion talks about Blackwattle’s investment philosophy and the opportunities and challenges an emerging fund manager faces, and how our first 12 months of working together delivered a very pleasing result for our clients.
Click below to view
