Cerno Capital Posts

BB Healthcare – being part of the solution

By |2019-06-05T10:38:15+00:00June 4th, 2019|Asset Allocation, Cerno Capital, Cerno Capital Posts, General Investment, Manager Selection, Strategy|

Healthcare offers a fertile hunting ground for investors with horizons beyond that of most market participants. In the search for companies capable of compounding earnings over long periods the unique secular demand underpinning the sector is a useful tailwind. Within Cerno clients’ portfolios we own companies in orthopaedics (Zimmer Biomet), pharma & technology (Johnson & Johnson and Waters) and post-operative care (Coloplast). 5 of the 27 stocks within our Global Leaders strategy are bracketed healthcare stocks with many more feeding their products and services into the supply chain. Newer, disruptive technologies are also represented in the Baillie Gifford Global Discovery Fund where healthcare represents 35-40%. Nevertheless, it is our observation that our investment footprint risks lagging the expanding opportunity set. As we set out in a recent missive, The New Ways, affordability is becoming an increasingly intransigent, and central issue for the effective delivery of healthcare. In the US healthcare spend is a colossal US$3.3tn, expanding at twice the rate of inflation. Traditional pharma has few tools in its locker to resolve the problem. The answer instead lies in a broad church of business, from medical technology (MedTech), to managed care, to healthcare IT. Technology often lies at the heart [...]

Read More

Renishaw Negotiates a Soft-Patch

By |2019-05-29T13:32:21+00:00May 29th, 2019|Cerno Capital, Cerno Capital Posts, Cerno Global Leaders, General Investment, Other Posts|

Renishaw, a UK engineering company held in the Global Leaders portfolio, held its annual Capital Markets Day on the 14th May in their Gloucestershire Innovation Centre, showcasing a selection of their machines. The company sells high precision measuring, gauging and calibration equipment to the high-end industrial and manufacturing sectors, enabling their customers to optimise processes and output, significantly reducing time and cost of production. Metrology has been core to Renishaw’s business since the founding of the company in 1973, when the original touch-trigger probe was invented by Sir David McMurtry, to test the integrity of finished aerospace components. Traditionally, finished parts are inspected at the end of the production line, if a defect is found, the entire batch is likely to be scrapped. For expensive components such as jet engine blades that cost northward of £250,000 a piece, this can become a costly undertaking. Exhibit: Renishaw Equator Gauging system next to a Fanuc Robodrill Source: Renishaw Renishaw’s value proposition to their customers is to integrate product inspection into the manufacturing process, tracking errors in real-time. Their probes and gauging systems are often found sitting alongside manufacturer’s machines on the factory floor. For instance, their flexible 5-axis probe (shown above), takes [...]

Read More

Nestlé – provenance and packaging

By |2019-05-21T09:59:38+00:00May 21st, 2019|Cerno Capital, Cerno Capital Posts, Cerno Global Leaders, General Investment, Global Leaders|

As the largest food and beverage company in the world, Nestlé leaves a significant footprint on the markets it touches. While Nestlé is not a primary producer, it maintains close links with agriculture to establish provenance and guard against reputational risk associated with poorly chosen inputs. While its products are mostly consumed, the packaging used to deliver product is a material consideration – Nestlé is concerned both with the source materials of packaging and its disposal after use. The investment that Nestlé makes in both packaging technology and ingredient sourcing is a competitive advantage that allows it to maintain Global Leader status. Rather than simply observing the practices used by agriculture, Nestlé is an active participant in the development of new practices that improve productivity, crop quality and environmental practices. Nestlé achieves this via its network of Plant Science R&D centres and directly employed agronomists. Each year, the company processes 10% of the coffee and cocoa produced globally. For an example of a practical initiative we can look to Jardin in the Colombian Andes where Nestlé sources high quality coffee beans for Nespresso capsules. Traditional processing of coffee cherries involves on-farm fermentation to remove the outer shell with the waste [...]

Read More

ASML – pre-eminent in photolithography

By |2019-05-14T08:47:54+00:00May 14th, 2019|Cerno Capital, Cerno Capital Posts, Developed Equities, General Investment, Global Leaders|

ASML is the dominant supplier of photolithography tools for semiconductor manufacturers. Photolithography is the process of printing with light. In semiconductors it is the process whereby a light source is used to expose circuit patterns onto a wafer via a photomask. Photolithography has played a pivotal role in the evolution of semiconductors. It was Robert Noyce (future co-founder of Intel) at Fairchild Semiconductors in 1960 who saw the potential of the process to enable the printing of electronic circuits on flat, silicon wafers. This vision gave birth to the first integrated circuit and catalysed the race to ever smaller geometries in chip design. As transistor scale approaches the atomic level, the next limiting factor for the continuation of Moore’s Law1 is the wavelength of light. The shorter the wavelength, the smaller the scale in which a circuit can be printed. A radical reengineering of the lithography process is required. For the last 20 years ASML has been working on just such a radical solution. EUV or Extreme Ultraviolet lithography drops the wavelength of light from 193nm to 13.5nm enabling the extension of Moore’s Law through 2025. The payoff for this commitment of capital, and shouldering of risk, is 100% market [...]

Read More

Global Healthcare – The New Ways

By |2019-02-15T16:08:03+00:00February 15th, 2019|Asset Allocation, Cerno Capital, Cerno Capital Posts, General Investment|

Nothing is certain but death and taxes. To this Benjamin Franklin might have reasonably addended ‘but people’s desire to avoid both should not be underestimated’. Putting aside the morality of the latter the desire to maximise one’s health speaks to us all. It is this desire which has helped the healthcare sector to deliver enviable multi-year returns. Globally the sector has generated a total return of 9% p.a. since 2005, outperforming the broader market by over 2% p.a. Source: Bloomberg, world = developed markets But fortunes have not been evenly distributed. Beneath the surface the drivers of growth are shifting. Since the late ‘80s cash earnings for the broad healthcare space have exhibited a rising trend against the market, illustrating the unique secular demand underpinning the sector. However, the beneficiaries of this demand have rotated. Large cap pharma, often a heuristic for the sector, continues to dominate the market cap spectrum, but better growth is to be found elsewhere. This is reflected in starkly contrasting stock performance. Despite representing some 50% of the whole, pharma gained only 46% since 2012 (a CAGR of 6%) against the sector up 112% (CAGR: 13%). Distributable Cash Earnings - US Healthcare vs S&P 500, [...]

Read More

World Monetary Conditions – What Temperature is the Porridge?

By |2019-02-05T15:16:14+00:00February 5th, 2019|Cerno Capital, Cerno Capital Posts, General Investment|

If we cast our minds back to this time a year ago (or even 6 months ago), the common consensus was 2019 was going to be a period of tightening financial conditions. US unemployment was nudging below 4% and wage growth was finally perking up. The S&P 500 was on track for its best start in 30 years. The Fed appeared to be ahead of the pack in actively tightening rates and the ECB was making noises about stabilising QE and raising rates for the first time after the summer of 2019. Fast forward to the ructions of Q4 2018 and central banks seem terrified they have pushed too far too fast. The FOMC meeting in December turned the month from a correction into a rout with Governor Powell’s somewhat headstrong communique on rate increases and autopilot balance sheet runoff. In contrast the latest Fed minutes (only a month later) were as close to total capitulation as the Fed could reach without risking credibility in the markets’ eyes. In his comments, Powell made concessions on the rate path, number of hikes and most importantly on the balance sheet run off. On the other side of the Pacific, China’s Central Bank, [...]

Read More

What does credit default pricing tell us about the cycle?

By |2018-11-23T12:55:49+00:00November 23rd, 2018|Cerno Capital, Cerno Capital Posts, Credit, General Investment|

Credit risk is the risk that companies do not repay their debts. This risk can be measured and traded. CDX IG is an index comprising the 125 most liquid single name Credit Default Swaps (CDS) in the investment grade space in the US. The most commonly traded tenor point is 5 years and the index is refreshed by the provider every 6 months to maintain maturity and liquidity profile of the underlying names. We are currently on series 31 (meaning the index has been running in one form or another since 2002-2003). The index is quoted in terms of basis points and a quote represents the annual cost of insuring a notional amount of the underlying assets (as a simple approximation). For example; with CDX IG NA currently trading at 78bps (0.78%) an investor paying to insure US$10mn for 5 years would pay US$78,000 annually. In return for this insurance premium they would be made whole (minus the recovery rate) in the event of any defaults during the period, proportionate to the size of the constituent. On the flip side, the seller of such a contract would receive US$78,000 annually whilst being on the hook for the above obligations. These [...]

Read More

Nick Hornby wins the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Spear’s Wealth Management Awards 2018

By |2018-11-07T11:52:39+00:00November 7th, 2018|Cerno Capital, Cerno Capital Media Mentions, Cerno Capital Posts|

On Tuesday 6th November, Nick Hornby was awarded the top award at the Spear’s Wealth Management Awards 2018, held at The Dorchester. The Outstanding Achievement Award is the highest reward that Spear's give out at what has come to be known as the UK’s “financial Oscars”. The awards celebrate the very best in wealth management, private banking and law, acknowledging innovation, success and outstanding contributions to  wealth management and beyond. Presenting Nick with his award, the judges commented that, “[Nick is] a person of top quality, a fantastic ambassador for the industry doing something really different. A standout, praising his huge credibility”. We are delighted that Nick’s dedication to Cerno Capital’s investors over the past 11 years has been recognised by our peers.

Read More

Equity Markets – Swords Drawn

By |2018-10-12T15:55:21+00:00October 12th, 2018|Asset Allocation, Cerno Capital, Cerno Capital Posts, Other Posts|

The sudden break-down in headline indices is stimulating a great deal of considered comment and a tweet or three from President Trump. The Fed’s fault? Well, in part. We summarise Governor Powell’s approach to monetary policy as “giddy up”: to temper the US economy during a period of extranormal growth and build some reserve for future cuts when the next crisis comes along. The second part has been referred to by past Governor Bernanke as “putting bullets in the gun”. In the very short term, portfolio managers of all stripes are assessing the collateral effects of this downward move in equity markets. Questions being asked are how is the dollar responding (down a bit), how is gold responding (up a bit), how is oil responding (down US$2bbl) and finally how is the US bond market responding (down a bit in capital value terms)? Measurement of these cross correlations allows people to assess whether the correction is a crisis - the very short-term conclusion being no. The more worrying combination would be a strong move upward in gold and downward in bond yields which would be reflective of actual cash flows out of equity markets into haven assets. This has not [...]

Read More

Outside In: Discover at Cerno Capital

By |2018-09-28T10:49:05+00:00September 28th, 2018|Cerno Capital, Cerno Capital Posts, Events, Other Posts|

Outside In and Cerno Capital are pleased to present Outside In: Discover, an exhibition celebrating artwork by three Outside In artists. Outside In was founded in 2006 at Pallant House Gallery and became an independent charity in 2016 following a highly successful decade. The award-winning charity works to provide a platform for people who face significant barriers to the art world whether due to health, disability, social circumstances or isolation, and currently supports 2,600 artists. We were able to collaborate with Outside In for this exhibition, displaying colourful works that are varied in style and representative of artists from diverse backgrounds reflecting Outside In’s inclusive ethos. All three exhibiting artists create work with strong, vibrant imagery, each with a very unique and distinct practice. Nnena Kalu works in an obsessive and determined way to develop a range of work with an underlying approach of a systematic layering. In the works on display, she uses repetitive lines which she draws in circular motion, responding to the rhythm and noise of creating the work. Once she has applied a painted background, she creates repeated lines with a circular motion, frequently following the same route to create heavily worked into vortex shapes and [...]

Read More