My portfolio: performance update

John Lee

+28 per cent in 2009

The adage “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” certainly proved true with my New Year visit to the Ladbroke Arms – the flagship gastro-pub of the Alternative Invesment Market (Aim) quoted Capital Pub Company. Impressed with the ambience, the food, the activity at lunchtime – and the fact that my host, chief executive Clive Watson, has been steadily increasing his shareholding – I became convinced to double my stake. This must make it the most expensive lunch likely to be consumed in London in 2010!

Capital Pub Company – which is trading well and at half its asset value – is typical of many of the established, profitable, undervalued Aim stocks that I have been steadily accumulating, in the hope that they will “deliver” in 3-5 years time. So, while I am pleased with my 28 per cent overall gain in 2009, I am not concerned with 12-month performance figures. I take a much longer view.

This week at Westminster, I also the Government about the tax treatment of Aim shares. “Would xxxxxx [to come on Wednesday]...

Kevin Goldstein-Jackson

+ 34 per cent in 2009

Up 34.4 per cent. Not a bad performance for my self-invested personal pension (Sipp) portfolio – but I should have done better. I ought to have followed a hunch and bought shares in Barclays at 60p each last January. If I had, I could have sold at 350p or more in August.

Surprisingly, Westmount Energy, whose share price started the year at £1 and ended it at 85p was one of my Sipp’s best performers. How? Because the company returned cash equivalent to 65p per share to shareholders after selling its stake in Eclipse Energy.

Industrial engineer Weir Group did well, rising from 310p to 717.5p – although I reduced my stake at 604.5p in September. Other good performers included Falkland Islands Holdings (227.5p to 455p), Premier Oil (985p to £11.05) and Lonmin (911p to £19.59). With Premier and Lonmin, my Sipp also benefited considerably from taking up rights issue shares – Premier at £9 per share and Lonmin at 485p.

Disappointment came from publisher Bloomsbury (159.75p to 126.5p) although I did increase my stake at 123.5p in May. My cautious stance towards the end of the year saw cash increase from 20 per cent of the portfolio to 33 per cent.

Peter Temple

+12 per cent in 2009

A minute 1 per cent uplift in the overall value of my portfolio since October looks pedestrian in the light of a 6 per cent gain in the market. But my stock market investments – shares, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), unit trusts and unused cash balances – are up by a more reasonable 4 per cent or so over the same period. The difference is accounted for by a decision to write down the current value of my Isle of Man investment property.

Property values were little changed there in 2009 and more optimistic valuations placed by local agents on similar properties have not been borne out by events. Nonetheless, I estimate that the property in question is still showing a substantial 73 per cent uplift on my investment of five years ago.

Since January 2009, my portfolio overall is ahead by around 12 per cent and the stock market component by around 15 per cent, compared to a 23 per cent gain in the index. Once again I have not included any uplift in value in my tangible investments in rare coins. These remain valued at cost. Evidence suggests, however, that there has been a consistent growth in values in the region of 8-10 per cent a year since I began my collection in 2004.

Nick Louth

+46 per cent in 2009

A new year offers the chance to review investment themes. For me, the most important is not to mess with a winnning formula. My total return for 2009 was 45.9 per cent, more than enough to recoup my losses in 2008, and my best annual return since 1999’s 49.6 per cent.

Cash balances, 30 per cent a year ago, have now been drawn down to 4 per cent. That says a lot about the current low rate of interest held on deposits, but also a lot about the range of high income opportunities available, as detailed last week.

With a solidly defensive focus, the yield on my portfolio has risen to 4 per cent. However, the big difference now is in the enhanced defensiveness of the portfolio, with 21.8 per cent in corporate bonds and preference shares, and a much bigger holding in large cap growth-orientated shares.

I expect there to be a few rocky months to come, perhaps starting around March and certainly by May, so I don’t want to start handing back too many of last year’s gains.