“Our investment approach aims to allow experienced and skilled investment professionals to thrive within a disciplined risk framework that at all times aims to ensure the stewardship of clients’ assets is effectively maintained.” Stephen Watson, CIO
Our investment approach emphasises a ‘top-down’ approach to asset allocation. We assess the macro-economic environment and the fundamental trends influencing global growth. We evaluate country and industry dynamics and major investment themes from which we devise our asset allocation. Each company or fund selected for our portfolios undergoes in-depth analysis to ensure it meets our investment criteria and our extensive research programme involves holding more than 500 meetings each year with analysts and senior company management. All investment decisions are examined and debated by our investment committee, comprising Stephen Watson, Amanda van Dyke, Richard Stevens and Richard Lockwood.
Richard Stevens has a long track record in fixed income with institutional asset managers, including Legal & General, Old Mutual
and Threadneedle. He has a particularly broad technical knowledge of government and corporate bond funds. Richard Lockwood established City and Merchant’s high yield investment trust in 2003 whilst at Invesco. An expert in income and resources, Richard set up New City AM before its acquisition by CQS and also founded Arlington Investment Management. He sits on the boards of several companies in the mining industry.
Our Technique
At South River Asset Management we prefer to think of our approach as a technique not a process. This means we are constantly looking to refine it, hone it and improve it to provide in much the same way as a successful business, orchestra or any team across other fields does. This means constantly challenging ourselves, our views and our analysis to minimise mistakes and give ourselves the highest chance of success.
Ideas are discussed in an informal collegiate environment, with managers doubling up as analysts to ensure a thorough and properly thought out assessment of an industry and business and prospects.
Our individuals have built an expertise in many investment fields and a management style that encourages their views to be expressed and debated in a productive way. We aim to place the key criteria of seeking out successful companies in the context of the market’s constantly changing dynamics.
At its heart we believe each investment decision is driven by a simple concept– to buy an asset that is undervalued relative to its peers and its prospects. Understanding why the asset is relatively cheap requires a disciplined fundamental approach to investing, while understanding investment dynamics, volatility and risk enables an insight into how that asset price will move to close the undervaluation. We aim to find businesses whose characteristics identify them as undervalued relative to peers and prospects with catalysts that will initiate a revaluation.