Ann: FY18 Half Year Results Announcement Date, page-198

Hi Croasian, thanks for your reply. I had a quick look at Shine's accounts and they seem reasonable and the company is certainly trading cheaply using any number of earnings ratios. I just have a bit of trouble gaining any clarity around earnings a few years in advance and finding any enduring competitive advantage. Having said that, SHJ may perform very well into the future* it is just outside of my circle of competence so is not a company I actively research. Perhaps Ben Graham would be interested in SHJ at these levels were he alive today. However, having read Securities Analysis and The Intelligent Investor most of the companies used as exemplars were either asset plays or companies that had recurring revenues to an extent. Given the extreme variance in SHJ's earnings and lack of saleable assets, I find it hard to categorise Shine as either.

I agree with TA. The share price follows the companies performance and not vice versa. The only situation I can think of where the share price influences the intrinsic value of a company is when a company urgently needs to raise capital. For example STO. Well done on STO by the way, Santos would arguably fit into either Ben Graham model. Typically I have been avoiding resource companies and focussing on industrials, but in hindsight I can see that I should have had a bigger punt (I bought some S32) when things were grim in resources.

My approach is more focussed on buying businesses with steady/predictable cash flows. This approach has not given me the spectacular returns you have enjoyed over the last few years, but I find it suits my personality better. Fluctuations in the share price don't worry me overly, however, poor underlying business performance causes me stress. The investments I have enjoyed the most are those that grow steadily through the cycle and can be bought at reasonable prices

My investment process is much more akin to @madamswer or @MarsC - at least I am attempting to emulate these guys.

As a result I have been using this little bit of market volatility as a buying opportunity. I have bought/added to IFL, CGF**, ZNT and Dignity PLC all at fractionally higher prices than they are today. All of the businesses mentioned have a good chance of continuing to grow earnings over the foreseeable future.

In concluding, I am interested in reading about your investment process and I think it can be highly lucrative, just that it doesn't work for me on a personal level - don't need any more grey hairs.

* Admittedly it does look cheap and with the demise of SGH the competitive landscape may have improved

** Thanks to Madamswer for commentary on CGF. After doing my own due diligence on CGF I can why even though it looks dearer on some metrics it is arguable a better investment today than a few years ago. Specifically FUM, competitive advantage and cost to income ratio. IFL and ZNT I have followed for years and DTY is a recent addition.