SOL under $15 ?, page-48

Personally, I think you are getting a bit more buying now. Whilst I like the Milner family approach I think that the new CEO ( Tom Barlow) has a better understanding of finding Investment value and I think the whole PCG move was a great move. What do they say its better to own the Investment house than owning the fund. I think that we are so used to the cyclical nature here and I think the next few bits added on may well be a bit more Investment house/management. So my gems are TPG, PCG, NHC ( because I think they did a great deal) and the property part. I am a bit ambivalent about the actual bricks and building products. The only defence is the transport costs but wages and energy costs really make me uncomfortable...

If I was to look back I am far more committed today than I was say 3 /4 years ago. What does worry me it that its barely beaten the all share index over 5 years and with the lower yield probably hasn't beaten the accumulation index.

I think that much of the hype around SOL was after the big sale by NHC of New Saraji for $2.5 billion - 2008. That was a huge win but personally, there hasn't been much outperformance since then. we are all waiting for the company to start making plus plus again. It may well be the industrial property.

Its the really solid asset-backed part of my portfolio but TPG and NHC have not added value in my opinion in the past 5 years. For example, over 5 years MNF has gone up 360% and TPM only 118% over 10 years it's 1471% for TPM and 3893% for MNF. They don't compete directly but are both Telcos and yes have done well but I feel that SOL did not lighten its holding in NHC and TPM at the correct times. You cannot pick the market all the time but there were headwinds and the Simon Hackett's of this world all sold to them and I think played a much better game in understanding where this market was going and the influence of the government. If you look at the 10-year graph its all even money until 2016 when TPM falls off the cliff and MNF just steadies and climbs again.

So I am hoping that we will have a far better investment management process with PCG and the change in leadership...