Re: Elderstreet
Posted: February 6th, 2022, 10:25 am
Sounds like you have done well UncleEbenezer.
[quote="Boots"
I can only comment on what I have seen during my ownership - no special dividends, just a steady 7% (on my net cost) and a reasonably steady asset price. Not great, but OK.
I may be setting the bar too low, but it passes my tests at the moment.[/quote]
I tend to agree with you as it is not certainly a disaster , its stuffed with technology and manufacturing shares which I guess will have a higher failure rate thereby dampening performance. I dont think that it takes many additional failures in a portfolio to do that. Prior to us buying the share price was a lot higher and I think they paid out special dividends of about 25p over a year or two. There was a good disposal(s) made of mainly a military switchgear company make in 2014. For me Elderstreet is a good diversifier as I dont want everything in one basket.
I have let some of my earlier technology VCTs go. It must be hard for investment professionals to deal with concepts they do not fully understand promoted by people who may not be greatly interested in the return. I was surprised once to see a spelling mistake in the type of product in a company report. I recall the eternal promises of jam soon to come. Somebody else can develop a better one and the investment may have been fogged by trendy euphoria anyways. Did not one once respected unit trust purveyor invest in cold fusion ?
Its easy to analyse in hindsight but some of these firms made great returns on very few investments (100 baggers) and sometimes on small VCT capitalisations. Uncomfortably like luck I wonder. I feel that it underlines the skill of the Baronsmeads / Northerns / Mobeus and others to thump out solid dividends year in year out. Indeed simple businesses (and MBOs) help the predictability of the eventual outcome. As Buffet says invest in companies that can be run by idiots and they should not waste money on fancy company reports...
I find it ironic that I with my background in Physics prefers to hold shares in easier to understand businesses. It must be a lot easier to trawl the Chelsea Winebars talking of a fantastic wellness gym or premium knitwear selling Asia company rather than having to say you have just funded a novel trans-sonic intercooler. The words "Lush" does not come to mind.
[quote="Boots"
I can only comment on what I have seen during my ownership - no special dividends, just a steady 7% (on my net cost) and a reasonably steady asset price. Not great, but OK.
I may be setting the bar too low, but it passes my tests at the moment.[/quote]
I tend to agree with you as it is not certainly a disaster , its stuffed with technology and manufacturing shares which I guess will have a higher failure rate thereby dampening performance. I dont think that it takes many additional failures in a portfolio to do that. Prior to us buying the share price was a lot higher and I think they paid out special dividends of about 25p over a year or two. There was a good disposal(s) made of mainly a military switchgear company make in 2014. For me Elderstreet is a good diversifier as I dont want everything in one basket.
I have let some of my earlier technology VCTs go. It must be hard for investment professionals to deal with concepts they do not fully understand promoted by people who may not be greatly interested in the return. I was surprised once to see a spelling mistake in the type of product in a company report. I recall the eternal promises of jam soon to come. Somebody else can develop a better one and the investment may have been fogged by trendy euphoria anyways. Did not one once respected unit trust purveyor invest in cold fusion ?
Its easy to analyse in hindsight but some of these firms made great returns on very few investments (100 baggers) and sometimes on small VCT capitalisations. Uncomfortably like luck I wonder. I feel that it underlines the skill of the Baronsmeads / Northerns / Mobeus and others to thump out solid dividends year in year out. Indeed simple businesses (and MBOs) help the predictability of the eventual outcome. As Buffet says invest in companies that can be run by idiots and they should not waste money on fancy company reports...
I find it ironic that I with my background in Physics prefers to hold shares in easier to understand businesses. It must be a lot easier to trawl the Chelsea Winebars talking of a fantastic wellness gym or premium knitwear selling Asia company rather than having to say you have just funded a novel trans-sonic intercooler. The words "Lush" does not come to mind.