Historically my investment style has usually focused on what others would describe as deep value, contrarian, special situations and hunting for targets for activist investors.

This webpage is mainly about using my company funds to make some investments now consistent with my investment philosophy. Previously I had been slack in making use of this capital so one goal is to make me focus on this more.

Opportunities that may be held less than a year can suit here given there is no CGT discount in this structure. The company size is still small right now so stocks with low liquidity can be considered. This might be if I see a path to a liquidity event to realise the investment. Given I have watched the LIC space for so long and observed the short term inefficiencies, I will sometimes place short term trades to exploit this.

It will not consist only of short term opportunities though. Ideally I want to use somewhat of a “barbell” strategy, and have around a third of the company in investments I don’t touch. I have heard of that portion being described as a “coffee can” portfolio. I feel I am better equipped to use that approach with this portfolio as it smaller and separate to my main funds under management. Obviously I will need to identify some good companies that will be going strong in the decades ahead with decent management. That won’t be easy, but I shall try!

The site will occasionally post updates for shareholders reflecting upon some of the history. Whether that be short term trading, or some stocks I consider fit the “coffee can” portfolio strategy.

The expectation here is that it is unlikely investors outside of family contacts will be interested in becoming shareholders. One point of the webpage though is not to rule this out as an option. The company sees engaged shareholders as possibly being a very useful resource in sourcing new investment ideas to explore. Extra capital could also one day enable the opportunity to acquire a “shell” type company that is tax effective. More likely though I refer to extra capital more by way of combining an idea and working together, rather than seeking funds to invest in my company.

I have seen a few of such opportunities even in the last year or two. For example, LICs that have shrunk to circa $5 million due to poor performance / winding up process. Sometimes they still have valuable tax losses / franking credits but they don’t attract many buyers. They have potential for new shareholders to revitalise them so long as a new board is not greedy with the running costs, whether this be on the ASX or NSX. I expect more of these opportunities to pop up in the next few years as many underperforming LICs set up around 2014 cease to exist in their current format.

This company aims to use its nimble size to take advantage in exploiting investment opportunities, but still have negligible effective fixed running costs.