We review the 16 stocks pitched at the Sohn Hearts & Minds conference

Bryce: [00:00:15] Welcome back to another episode of Equity Mates. We're coming to you live from Brooke's lounge room. Actually, from my lounge room. 

Alec: [00:00:22] Am I still guessing who you are? Intro of this upside. You are Home. 

Bryce: [00:00:29] No. I Look, we have just finished the session. Hearts and Minds Investment Leaders conference that was held at the Opera House. I'm sitting here with Wren and we are going to give a bit of a debrief on what happened today and draft 16 stocks that were pitched by some of the globe's best investors. 

Alec: [00:00:48] So for people who aren't familiar, Hearts and Minds is a listed investment company that 12 fund managers pitch their best ideas. That gets rolled into a fund with some other investments from the core managers. Rather than taking a management fee, they donate that management fee to medical research. $60 million has been donated. I think it's been running for, what, 7 or 8 years? 

Bryce: [00:01:08] Yeah.

Alec: [00:01:09] But they also hold the 12 fund managers pitch at this conference. So we went to today and they donated the ticket money from that to medical research as well. So it's a great way for expert investors to donate their knowledge and create value that then goes to a good cause. 

Bryce: [00:01:27] Yes. So it's the first time that we have attended the conference in person. We have been lucky enough, as you would have heard on episodes over the last few weeks to have some of the experts on the show. We had Rikki Bannon, we had Ashish Swarup and we had Tom Naughton all pitching stocks. So in today's episode, we are going to draft the 16 stocks one by one, create our own portfolio. We're going to recap last year's draft to say who came out on top. But to kick things off, there was more to today than just stock picks. We had heard from some fantastic medical researchers and leaders in the field of quantum computing. Brain cancer treatment. It was pretty fascinating. So what were some of your kind of takeaways, Ren? 

Alec: [00:02:13] Yeah, I think the three most impressive presentations were probably the medical researchers. The line that stood out was We have cured brain cancer. In mice. 

Bryce: [00:02:25] Well, I mean, yeah, regardless if in mice or not it was pretty phenomenal. 

Alec: [00:02:30] Yeah. Yeah. There was Peter Attia who I hadn't heard of before, but Simon from our office messaged with like Peter Attia. Exclamation mark. Exclamation mark. Hey, obviously I'd heard about him before. He's all about extending human life and the quality of life. Yeah. Medicine 3.0. Then we heard from a researcher who's working on brain cancer and, I guess novel ways to use the body's immune system to fight cancer. Pretty cool stuff there. And then, yeah, as you said, quantum computing. So pretty amazing. 

Bryce: [00:03:03] Also, the genomic medicine, we we heard from a guy who was talking about the intersection between, I guess, using genes to for treatment as well as the, you know, overlaying data science with that and and what it can do and was talking about case studies of how they had manipulated human genes to essentially solve or cure a number of debilitating diseases. So I think my takeaway with all the medical stuff, friend, was that none of it was like out of reach, sort of this is just fantasy. This is what we can hope for. Like it was very real medical research and proven results and it was super, I guess, heartening to see that, you know, the funds that are going towards this research are having a meaningful impact.

Alec: [00:03:53] Yeah, it's pretty amazing. 

Bryce: [00:03:55] Oh yeah. Oh, my wife has just walked in the room. Harriet and it actually runs both day to day as well. So would you. 

Alec: [00:04:04] Would you let me help you with that? alright, Bryce. It was an epic day and we're going to draft all these stocks later. But rather than teasing it and teasing it throughout, let's just talk about, well, let's list the stocks that were pitched today. And then if you're listening along at home, you can start to think about how you would or you would draft those stocks. So some of the names were new. Some of them are quite familiar. Ashland Global was the first pitched cannon. The printer maker was a short telecast pharmaceuticals company, Swire Pacific out of Hong Kong, NexGen Energy, a uranium company. Guzman Y Gomez one that I actually just I after the conference bed and body works UniCredit.

Bryce: [00:04:48] I think it was Bath and Body Works. 

Alec: [00:04:50] Bath and body Works. I was thinking about Bed Bath and beyond. Yeah UniCredit, IAI insurance, Mini So, ResMed, Lamb Weston, Games Workshop, Webster Financial Corp. The Greyscale Bitcoin Fund and then finally Wise. So that's 16 stock pitches. Some of the names I certainly wasn't familiar with, and we can unpack them a little bit more when we draft them. Some interesting companies pitch today. 

Bryce: [00:05:20] Interesting companies and some great experts. We had Ricky Sandler from the U.S. We also had Cathie Wood joining from overseas in video. So she really spoke for well over eight minutes. We had Dan Loeb from Third Point Capital plus many more that we'll go through soon. So before we get into the draft, let's have a review of how we went from last year because we did this same exercise after last year's HM1 conference. 

Alec: [00:05:46] Now I've just opened it, so can you see my screen or have you got it up there? 

Bryce: [00:05:51] I've got it open yet. 

Alec: [00:05:53] Okay. Well, the headline is to add two key headlines. Number one, I want. Yeah. Number two, we were both down. 

Bryce: [00:06:01] Yes. Yes. So.

Alec: [00:06:04] Can I can I just say before you unpack it, producer Sascha went to the Facebook discussion group and polled them. Who did I think won? 65% said you. I say to the 35% that backed me, I hope I. Well, I did repay your face. 

Bryce: [00:06:21] Nice. Well, I'm down 9.9%. Ren, You're down 4.4%, 4.7%. I mean, a lot of companies in here we had in mind, we had ASML, which I'm guessing is why a lot of people suggested that I would win. Nike was in there, but a number of my couple of my positions keywords, studios and darling ingredients both down over 40%. So that was a real drag.

Alec: [00:06:44] Yeah. Your best performer was an ASX listed stock champion iron up 27%, but yeah, down almost 10% at the end of the day. For my side of the ledger, my worst performer was down 50%. China tourism group, that one hurts. That was my second draft pick, but New Relic was up 52% and Carsales listed in Australia was up 30%. Overall, I was down about 5%. So the stock pitches last year didn't exactly cover themselves in glory, but it was a pretty tough year. 

Bryce: [00:07:20] It was. But let's get to this. 

Alec: [00:07:22] Let's get to it before we drive, Bryce, We should make clear that you're about to hear 16 stocks that were pitched by experts today, but they are aware of your personal financial circumstances, do not take their pitches as personal investment advice. Do your own research, seek professional advice if you need it. And as we talk about it, remember that this show is intended for education and entertainment purposes only. With that said, let's get to the draft. How do we decide who goes first? Well, it's your. 

Bryce: [00:07:49] Birthday, so you go first. 

Alec: [00:07:50] Okay, great. I haven't picked I haven't decided how I want to go. All right. First pick of the draft. I'm going to pick the worst pitch but I think in terms of the next year has the best opportunity to mean that I win this. Okay. I'm going to pick Cathie Wood's Greyscale Bitcoin Investment Trust. Cathie Wood's pitch reminds me of a quote that Speccy Magee gave us a couple of years ago. I don't want a recession. I want a risk on session. The pitch was basically she had this stat that I wrote down because it was so unbelievable. She thinks between now and 2030, honestly, the math doesn't work. But she said it will go from 84 billion to 97 billion. I think global Equity Mates obviously in the trillions. 

Bryce: [00:08:35] Yeah, that's alright. 

Alec: [00:08:36] Yeah. Anyway, she had a number that was like non disruptive technologies will go from 87 billion to 97 billion. Disruptive technologies will go from 13 billion to 202 billion. Anyway, it was just basically like her five chosen disruptive technologies are going to just do create all the value over the next decade. Now the Greyscale Bitcoin Investment Trust is basically a listed investment company that only invests in Bitcoin and so it's just betting on the price of Bitcoin. So right now Bitcoin 37,000 USD a coin. Her base case by 2030 is $650,000 a coin and her bull case is $1.5 million a coin. Yeah, but anyway, let's not talk about bitcoin. My first pick of the draft, the Greyscale Bitcoin Investment Trust pitch by Cathie Wood.

Bryce: [00:09:31] Nice. All right, well, there are a number to choose from here. Keeping in mind that this is a 12 month time horizon that we're talking about. A number of the pitches were given with 3 to 5 year time horizons. I'm going to have to go with Chris Kourtis and we've spoken about this on the show is ResMed. 

Alec: [00:09:52] Really? Yeah. On the way home, you were saying how you thought it was on an uninspired pitch. 

Bryce: [00:09:57] That doesn't mean that I don't think it's not going to perform. I just thought it was a lazy pitch.

Alec: [00:10:02] All right. Well, give us your two cents. 

Bryce: [00:10:05] Well, I just think that within the next 12 months from where it is, unless the thesis is proven that the JO 1 Drugs are much more effective long term than people think and actually have a much more meaningful impact on ResMed sleep apnoea business than over the next 12 months. I would anticipate that the market realises that there's an opportunity there. Pretty simple. 

Alec: [00:10:33] Nice one. Love it. All right. Well, for my next pick, I'm going to pick the last company that was pitched today and that is Wise. Now people might be familiar with wise from the, if they travel overseas, it's probably been recommended to them. Last couple of times I've travelled. I've used it. It's basically like a global it's like a travel money card without the fees. With far less fees. It's a card that you can hold multiple currencies on. And essentially the way that it was pitched by Kieran Moore from Munro Partners was they have found a way to cut all of the middlemen out of global money transfers, and they're offering it to customers and small and medium businesses. And so if you think about how payments all the middlemen that clip the ticket on international payments, your bank, the global global payment transfer, the other bank on the other side, there's often third party banks in the middle as well. They've cut all of them out and they basically manage the liquidity in-house. Why is this basically a giant liquidity pool that holds it in lots of different currencies and just gives you the currency that you need? Anyway, that's a really great description of it. Kieran would do a much better job, but that's what I'm taking is my second pick. 

Bryce: [00:11:49] Nice. Okay, so I'm going to go with.

Alec: [00:11:51] You're already nervous. You picked one company. 

Bryce: [00:11:54] Yeah, I should be on one. I might keep this one for later, but the only reason I'm going to go with this is because the experts specifically said that there is a 50% upside within the next 12 months, and that is Ashish Swarup, who we've had on the show, which was AIA insurance. AIA insurance. They're an insurance provider for emerging economies, emerging countries, and they provide life insurance. And there's a big sort of insurance protection gap in a lot of these emerging markets, and they play a big role in filling that gap. Huge market in terms of the health care insurance. They anticipate by 2030, Asia will be spending 4 trillion on health care. It's the fastest growing life insurance provider in India. Ongoing AIA insurance. 

Alec: [00:12:49] Yeah. Nice one for my third pick. I'm going to go to a company that I don't know if it will have a great one year performance, but I thought it was maybe the most interesting company pitch today. It was pitched by Angela Aldrich. The company is Lamb Weston. Now, Bryce, did you know that we are living in the middle of a French fry war? 

Bryce: [00:13:11] Yeah, I was there.

Alec: [00:13:15] Well, let me tell you about it anyway. So here are some crazy stats for you. 42% of restaurant menus worldwide have French fries on the menu. 60% of restaurant menus in the US have French fries on the menu pre-pandemic. 21% of food ordered globally from light takeaway or restaurant, including French Fries. 

Bryce: [00:13:37] There's a French fry addiction going on. 

Alec: [00:13:40] An America is dominated by three major French fry players. It's an oligopoly. Angela was speaking about how it's a rational market, which is a euphemism in investing circles for the companies. Don't compete on price aggressively. Yeah. This company, Lamb Weston, has been beaten down. It was a bad harvest in the Colorado River area where they have a lot of their suppliers are based and they've seen like earnings compression as a result. They've also been hit by the Ozempic trade. People think that, you know, Ozempic is going to stop food craving. French fry cravings. I mean, you know, it's not the craziest Ozempic Thesis we've heard, but Angela was speaking about how this year the harvest has been great in the Columbia River Basin. Volumes are increasing that the margins will improve because it was a good harvest and she thinks the stock will rewrite higher. But just a really for me, this is like a classic, you know, just it's one of those stocks that you never think about which supplies French fries. 

Bryce: [00:14:43] I was just thinking through this pitch. Man she's spent a lot of time thinking about French fries.

Alec: [00:14:48] I mean, best market research you could do. So anyway, Lamb Western. That's going to be my third pick. 

Bryce: [00:14:54] All right. Lamb Western is your third, Ren. I'm going to get a bit of diversity in here and get a commodity in, I think, which Candice and Felicity from Talk Money To Me will be, I think, happy with this one from Jeremy Bond. He pitched a uranium company called NexGen. 

Alec: [00:15:12] Yeah. Without T. 

Bryce: [00:15:15] NexGen Energy now.

Alec: [00:15:18] So this is not us name dropping. But we were sitting with Chris Judd for the morning session. And as we were walking out, he just said, NexGen is a base. 

Bryce: [00:15:28] Is a base. Yeah. Yeah, it is a great deal. We met Chris Judd. We met Nick Griffin from Munro Partners. Mark Nelson was there. Solomon Lew We unfortunately did get to meet in the audience, Geoff Wilson was there. And we walked straight past him. But there were plenty of well known industry leaders there. 

Alec: [00:15:45] We were there, Bryce Leske. 

Bryce: [00:15:47] Which was great to chat to anyway. Uranium. So NexGen they're not producing any uranium at the moment here in Australia, but they are on track to be one of the largest and lowest cost producers of uranium at a global scale with some of the highest quality uranium that you can buy. Now why is this important? There is a huge shortage of uranium versus the demand that is expected over the next decade. This is why I am going to stop. China plans for ten new power stations, nuclear power stations per year for the next ten years. Regrettably, Australia didn't really show up on the map when it came to planned nuclear power stations. 

Alec: [00:16:27] Yeah. Yeah. NexGen has been on a big run though. 

Bryce: [00:16:31] Yes, they did. He did show. Jeremy showed that where the price currently is, he expects it to surpass its previous all time high of about 140 bucks. It's currently sitting around 75. I think.

Alec: [00:16:44] The Uranium price.

Bryce: [00:16:44] The uranium price, not the price of NexGen. 

Alec: [00:16:47] And he did the maths on the mine that they're building. If they build the mine and if the uranium price gets to $100, then it will be the eighth biggest miner in the world from a freight on a free kind of frequency. 

Bryce: [00:17:01] And to be clear here, that's miner full stop. Not Uranium Miner. 

Alec: [00:17:04] Compared to BHP. 

Bryce: [00:17:07] So look, the risk taking this run for the next 12 months is that there's not a lot of price action in the next 12 months, but it could be one for the bottom drawer for the next ten years. 

Alec: [00:17:15] Maybe middle drawer, middle that you'd want to check on the uranium story every now and then. All right. We've got three each. My fourth one is going to be one that is I mean, it's just a company I would love to own and we have no idea about valuation and we have no idea about valuation because it's actually not listed yet, but it's likely going to list in the next 12 months. And they actually surprised us. And rather than a fundie pitching this stock, it was the CEO that came out and pitched his own company, the company, Guzman Y Gomez, and the founder, Steven Marks, was brought out and he pitched it. And I mean, I haven't met every CEO in corporate Australia, but I think Steven Marks would be on the podium in terms of the best seller of their own company.

Bryce: [00:18:03] Absolutely highly inspiring, engaging noisiest business like the back of his hand. 

Alec: [00:18:08] Like you finish that pitch and you think this is going to be as big as McDonald's burger. Well, he says it's going to be big. Just like obviously we're all aware of what Guzman Y Gomez is. It's got about 200 locations around the world, the majority of them in Australia. They think they can get to 1000 locations in Australia. And then they're also in, I think, Japan, Singapore and the US. The US is obviously a huge opportunity for them. Here's a fun fact. They are projected to get to $1 billion in sales this year. The only QSR is quick service restaurants that have got to $1 billion in sales faster than Guzman globally, Starbucks and Chipotle. I've heard of them. 

Bryce: [00:18:53] Yes, very much so. 

Alec: [00:18:55] I mean, you think about some of the big ones that have come like Cava, listed in New York earlier this year. Guzman has grown quicker than them. Like, it's a pretty incredible story. Over the past three years, same store sales growth has averaged 22%.

Bryce: [00:19:10] Yeah. This it's unbelievable. 

Alec: [00:19:11] This isn't just a story of them adding more and more locations every year. 22% average same store sales for three years. Like it's I mean we all know.

Bryce: [00:19:22] 50% earnings growth. 

Alec: [00:19:24] The only question is, what's this IPO going to be priced out? 

Bryce: [00:19:27] Yeah. And so yeah, yeah. 

Alec: [00:19:29] We would have. Yeah, that's why we both weren't going to drop. Because it might get priced at an eye wateringly high level. Yeah. And then that's my starting price for this draft. 

Bryce: [00:19:37] Yeah. Because it's a, it's a phenomenal business. But yeah, for the purpose of drafting, I did have it in the back of my mind. It could pop, it could get, it's got great consumer brand. You could say a lot of retail guys get it, getting behind it. But the worst case scenario here is that it like IPO's in October.

Alec: [00:19:53] But you say here's the thing looking at our respective draft boards so far whatever happens I'm going to leave today feeling a lot better about my collection of companies. Why? I just feel like I'm drafted better than you. 

Bryce: [00:20:07] Who cares. I think of a ship that kind of ruins the gamut. All right. My next one is going to. Back to Rikki Bannon, who we had on the show not too long ago. Again, because of the short term nature, well, not the short term nature, but there are some catalysts that could come in the next 12 months that could send this stock even higher. She pitched Telix Pharmaceuticals. Now it's a radiopharmaceuticals company that specialises in targeted diagnostic and I guess therapeutics by using radiation like in molecules, I guess, through injection. And so I guess the traditional way of diagnosing tumours and whatnot is through large scale radiation. I'm not I'm going to try and explain how it's going. Whereas this company has the ability to send in molecules that attach to cancer cells and then light up on, on a screening process. So it's less invasive and much more targeted. And as I said, it has application in diagnosis of cancer, but also treatment. Now, why she thinks that it's going to have, I guess, a catalyst over the next 12 months is because they already have a product in market. I think it's called elusive. I can't quite remember. And then two other products that are due out in the next 2 or 3 months plus a pipeline of product activity. So she sees pretty decent upside over the next 12 months. 

Alec: [00:21:32] Now, if you want, if you've got your eyebrows raised, that's Bryce's description of the medical technology and all of. When we spoke to Ricki on the podcast, she spoke about another company in the same field, Clarity Pharmaceuticals. So you can go and listen to that interview with Ricki and you can hear her explain how the medical tech works. Yeah. All right, Bryce. Well, we are each four companies down. We have four to go. So let's just quickly recap. Take a breath. I have drafted Cathie Wood's pick, The Greyscale Bitcoin Investment Trust. Wise the payments company, Lamb Weston all about French fries and Guzman Y Gomez also food related. 

Bryce: [00:22:15] Nice. You were obviously hungry at the time of recording. 

Alec: [00:22:19] Yeah. Yeah. Which is now. 

Bryce: [00:22:22] Yes. So I went to ResMed, I went to AIA Insurance, the uranium company, NexGen and then Telix Pharmaceuticals.

Alec: [00:22:29] Okay. So let's take a quick break. And then on the other side, we're going to keep drafting eight stock picks to go from the HM1 Conference will be back after this.

Bryce: [00:22:36] Oh, yeah.

Alec: [00:22:41] All right. Welcome back to Equity Mates. We're sitting on Bryce's lounge. It is a Friday afternoon. We have cracked a beer and we are talking investing. Sounds like the perfect way to end the way we've just been at the Hearts and Minds Investment Ladies Conference where 12 of the best fund managers actually more than 12. 15 of the best fund managers pitched their best ideas. And we're going through the stocks that were pitched. We are drafting them where each assembling a team based on the companies that were pitched. Yeah, we've each drafted four. We've got eight companies to go. I guess I'm on the clock. Yeah, that's why I'm putting up with this little intro. All right. I am going to choose Ashland Global. Okay. It was pitched by Ricky Sandler, who we had on the show about this time last year. So you can go back and listen to him. He's from New York. Epic story. He started a fund with like a few million dollars about 20 years ago and now has, I think, 7 billion under management. So pretty incredible. He pitched first today because the way the conference works is whoever had the best stock pitch the year before pitches first. So he had the best pitch last year. So he was on the stage first. Ashland Global is a speciality chemicals and speciality ingredients company. Basically, they provide the chemicals that like gives shampoo its thickness or gives skin care its extended release or give a paint its shine like all those chemicals that make our ultra processed society ultra processed. 

Bryce: [00:24:17] Cooked the world.

Alec: [00:24:19] And, you know, he pitched he reckons that he he said he thinks there's at least 55% upside, maybe 88% upside. I love how specific and confident he is with those projections. But, you know, he really made the case that it's been beaten down recently. But it is a company that is incredibly sticky because once you are designed into a manufacturing process, it's incredibly hard to switch you out. And in particular in the Life sciences division, if they are providing the chemicals that coat the pharmaceutical drugs or whatever it is. And then that drug has FDA approval, you can't switch it out like it's part of the approval, the approved drug. And so he was just talking about how this is one of those companies that is a tiny fraction of the cost of producing a product but is critical to that product. And that gives them a lot of staying power. So an interesting one. Ashland Global is my fifth pick.

Bryce: [00:25:13] Nice, Ren. Okay, so we've got a few to go. Not having seen the price charts or price action, even like in the presentations and how these experts have pitched them and then comparing that to price charts like they are, a lot of them are pitching stocks that are all beaten, like beaten down. 

Alec: [00:25:31] Well, I think that's part of the pressure of this conference. It's like, don't pitch us your best idea that will compound it 12% a year for the next 20 years. Yeah. Pitch us your best idea that will make a positive return this year. There's honestly an argument that you should just pitch something that will return 6%. And it's just like. It's like you're going to make money on it. Like some of the stocks we drafted last year were down like 40 or 50%.

Bryce: [00:25:54] Yeah, I know, I know. But that's because. Yeah. All right. So I speaking of beaten down, you probably can't get much beaten down than some of the US banks. Ravi Chopra, he pitched Webster Financial Corp. I've never heard of them. His presentation really revolved around what was going on with a lot of the banks over in the US over the past 12 months. $7 Billion Market cap. His pitch really is though, that they are the force. It's actually this is what I did find interesting is that it's the fourth largest health savings account in the US. Now, the US has a system where due to their health system, they have savings accounts that are tax free, that you can save money in that then go towards health payments. And this bank is deeply involved in that. The way that the accounts are constructed, at least this is how I understood it. The way that the accounts are constructed is that they have a low fixed payment in terms of interest on those and then they can make up a huge margin at the moment because the actual interest rates now are in the five percents. 

Alec: [00:27:00] Yeah. So as a customer, your benefit is you can contribute money pre-tax, you can direct some of your salary to go there and it's not taxed. Yeah, that's the benefit. Yeah. So they then don't pay a good Interest or in that spirit. 

Bryce: [00:27:13] .15 percent. 

Alec: [00:27:14] Yeah. So then the bank makes the spreads huge spread. 

Bryce: [00:27:18] Yeah. And so I guess his pitch here is that while a lot of the banks in the US in you know the smaller not neobanks but the banking sector in the US is incredibly. 

Alec: [00:27:28] Well here's the stat: the US has 5000 bank. 

Bryce: [00:27:31] 5000 banks so it's pretty fractured. And while a lot of them are falling down or struggling, he thinks that there's still more to come here. Cans that Webster a one that are well positioned given their place in the market with this helps health savings accounts and where interest rates are at the moment positioned to capitalise. 

Alec: [00:27:51] Yeah so. The thing that struck me about this presentation was he argued that there was a 60% upside to the current share price. He was saying that Webster should sell the HSA bank. Like that's what they should do. It is great business. It's making great returns at the moment. Sell it. And it just struck me as so like a short term investor focussed. It wasn't like there's this great business structure, good opportunity, like let's grow the shit out of it. It's sell it, sell it, realise the money even though the rest of your business is worse. And so like, sure, it was a good stock pitch. It was interesting. It's an interesting way to sort of lean into the difficulties in the US financial. The smaller end of the US financial sector at the moment. But the pitch gave me the ick.

Bryce: [00:28:40] Yeah, yeah. So that is a tie.

Alec: [00:28:46] And that is your company, not mine. All right. We have got six companies to go. Three each, so my worst performing pick last year was China duty free. It was pitched by Jun Bei Liu. But Jun Bei Liu, I'm going to back you because your pitch was one of my favourites of the day and you pitched a stock that I hadn't heard about, but I think the reason that I hadn't heard about it is because I'm getting old. Mini So is the company out of China. It operates in 100 countries, including Australia. If you've got young kids or young nieces and nephews, chances are they've probably heard about it. 5000 stores in 100 countries. And as Jun Bei Liu explained, it's a Japanese inspired lifestyle store that sells what's cute on Tik Tok. And the way she described it, it just made me think of Shein. You know how like Shein, the Chinese fast fashion brand. Their innovation was supply chain speed. This is that company in, like, knickknack retailing. So they deliver about 100 new products to store a week like that. How quickly they turn over their stock and their supply chain is so efficient, they're so integrated with like China's factories that they can go from designing from an idea to design to product on shelf in a week. Yeah, And that's essentially the business, just knickknacks and toys. They've got a lot of IP deals with, you know, the likes of Barbie and Mario, Jun Bei Liu was talking about. But the interesting thing, the reason that they've been able to expand globally so quickly is their business model is like a franchise like business model where they find a capital partner in each country to fund their expansion. And that capital partner gets about a third of revenue. But then Miniso came in and actually run the stores. So it's not a full franchised model, but it's like someone else stumps up the cash for their model and then they're like excellent operators and retailers. So coming in, I never heard of physical retail, not an industry that I love, but it's just an interesting company. 

Bryce: [00:30:55] Yeah, fast retail, fast knick knacks. All right, Ren. I'm going to go. 

Alec: [00:30:59] Not great for the planet, we should call out.

Bryce: [00:31:02] No, I'm going back to one of the Titans on Wall Street, Dan Loeb from Third Point Capital, $11 billion under assets, $3.3 billion net worth. He knows what he's talking about. His pitch is bath and body works as he said it. It sells candles and things that smell good. He says it has an obsessive customer base. It's essentially a homewares obsessive customer base, 50 million customers every month, he says, visit their stores. He said it was one of this. It was spun off from Victoria's Secret, believes that there's a 50% upside in the stock over the next 12 months. So I'm going to back him in. Let's see how good he can do. 

Alec: [00:31:39] It kind of reminds me of so you know how all the baby retailers in Australia went broke a couple of years ago and Baby Bunting was like the only one left standing, you know, like Bed, Bath and Beyond goes broke in the U.S. I think they've recapitalised and they're doing something now. But I'm sure there's space in the large format American homewares retail space. Yeah yeah. But yeah not a company that exactly gets me excited. Oh, I brace for my second last pick. I'm going to pick the best performing stock in the UK in the past decade. At least. It was a couple of years ago. Yeah. This is a stock that wasn't really pitched with any catalyst to perform well in the next 12 months, but it's just a company that keeps on keeping on its games. Workshop. For people that played Warhammer back in the day, it's the company that created and make Warhammer For those that didn't play Warhammer back in the day. It's tiny little plastic figurines that you build and paint and then you battle other people with them and they have had such a long history. Cards now and they've got so much IP that they now have like hundreds of books from the Warhammer Worlds and video games. And there was an announcement with Amazon earlier this year that they were going to launch the Warhammer Cinematic Universe similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So I guess they're like a a tabletop games company that's now becoming like an IP company itself. So it's a stock that's up 8,000% since 1994. It's 80 bagged in that time. Like it's been a great performer. Yeah, As I said, it wasn't really pitched with any catalyst for this year other than it's just going to keep on keeping on. But hopefully it keeps on keeping on the right way.

Bryce: [00:33:20] Yes. Pitched by a guy who had very high conviction and only has ten stocks in its portfolio. But I do agree. I didn't I didn't say it, to be honest. His whole thing was like it's just got really low penetration, so there's opportunity for it to go. 

Alec: [00:33:32] But one stat he said was that so it's a UK company and its US penetration is a third. The UK penetration, US penetration, a third the UK penetration. But part of me just thought, well, like maybe that's just customer preference.

Bryce: [00:33:45] Yes, that's what it is anyway. All right. We've got three to go. Oh, my goodness. I'm going to go with the short. 

Alec: [00:33:57] Really? I've been eyeing that one off. 

Bryce: [00:33:58] Yeah, I'm going to go with the short Ricky Sandler. He came in with a short for Cannon, which is actually up 30% year to date. So I guess that's why he's putting the shorts on. But his pitch was that it's in an industry that is in secular decline, which is printing. 

Alec: [00:34:14] Yeah. So Cannon, 55% of their revenue is in printing. Like selling printers to offices. 

Bryce: [00:34:20] And pre-COVID that was in decline and post Covid, it's obviously further in decline because a lot of businesses turned to doing business digitally. So there's not a lot to this one. He thinks that it's overpriced and there's only one way for this to go. His thesis was that there's 35 to 40% upside on the short. 

Alec: [00:34:42] Nice one. All right, well, we will watch Cannon. I can't say the last time. I actually did have to print something recently and it's a nightmare to try and find printers and scanners. All right, we got two to go. I get to choose between an Asian conglomerate and an Italian bank. I'm going to choose the Asian conglomerate. I'm going to choose Swire Pacific, pitched by Tom Naughton, who's been on the podcast recently. You can go and listen to him. But Swire Pacific is a conglomerate that has three business units. The first is a real estate business unit. The second, it's a Coca-Cola bottler in China, Cambodia and Vietnam. And then thirdly, it owns a stake in Cathay Pacific. The airline, the real estate business has been unloved because it's in China and China. Real estate is not in favour asset class at the moment. Tom made the case that the China property problem is really contained to residential real estate in second and third tier cities, whereas this is all commercial real estate, a lot of it in some of the bigger cities. Coca-Cola bottle up keeps on keeping on its IT bottles for a population of 900 million people across China, Cambodia and Vietnam. So it's big business. And then Cathay Pacific is one of the world's well-known airlines. So that's his pitch. Tom believes there's a 77% discount to the market price. So anyway, Swire Pacific is the name now. 

Bryce: [00:36:11] So that leaves me with Martin Hughes pitch, which was UniCredit. As you said, Ren, it's a Northern Italy bank. It's actually on an absolute tear at the moment. So hopefully that continues for me. 70% of its branches, mainland Italy, the thesis for his pitch was around that it consistently beats market Beats expectations and consistently gets upgraded and is also on a mission for buyback to the tune of 50% of its current market cap. So significant buyback to come. He reckons the two year total return is an upside of about 70%. So if that does pan out, hopefully, I mean for a bit of a bit of that over the next 12 months. He did finish by saying, though, that it's a 2 to 3 year trade, but nonetheless, I will take the UniCredit.

Alec: [00:36:55] Nice. Well, that does bring it to an end if you want to see what we picked. Head over to our Instagram. We'll put up a post that has the companies that were pitched and that we drafted so you can add them to your own watch list and you can do your own research on them. So as we close this out, let's just quickly recap what we drafted. I've got Greyscale Bitcoin Investment Trust. The British company was French fry maker Lamb Weston, the retailer Mini So, Ashland Global, Guzman Y Gomez. How could I forget guzman And then finally, Games Workshop. 

Bryce: [00:37:31] Nice, I have sleep apnoea maker ResMed, AIA Insurance, an Asian insurance Company, uranium miner, NexGen, Biomed Telix Pharmaceuticals, Webster Financial Group, Bath and Body Works, Bath and Body Works, the short on Cannon. And then the Italian bank UniCredit. 

Alec: [00:37:56] Nice one. Well, jump on our socials and let us know who you think drafted better. And I guess we'll pick this up at the same time next year. 

Bryce: [00:38:06] Yeah. Yes. Well, what a day. Really enjoyed it. Now, as Ren said at the top, if you want to find out more on the conference or on HM1, you can just head to the SOHN Hearts and Minds website. There is a listed investment company if you want to, I guess, invest in some of these ideas. 

Alec: [00:38:22] There is one other place people can go if they want to find out more about HM1. 

Bryce: [00:38:26] The HM1 podcast that we have done. It's called Hearts and Minds Podcast. 

Alec: [00:38:30] Yeah, produced by Equity Mates. Go and listen to both some of the fund managers and how they approach investing, but also some of the medical researchers and the really epic work that they're doing. I mean, like you leave those presentations feeling lucky that we were born today. I think being born ten years from now would have really been the sweet spot. It feels like we're right before the inflection point.

Bryce: [00:38:52] I was thinking that I reckon you would always feel that. 

Alec: [00:38:55] Nah. You reckon? 

Bryce: [00:38:56] Yeah, I reckon because every decade things are just going to get more and more. 

Alec: [00:39:00] But, but you know, it took, it took like decades to map the genome and it cost $3 billion and they finished it in 2003. And now they've brought that cost curve way down and it's like less than $1,000 and they've mapped 50 million people's genomes. Like now is when it's like, oh, we understand the human genome. You wouldn't, you didn't say that 15 years ago. 

Bryce: [00:39:19] No. But I reckon every ten years from now it's just going to be like oh. 

Alec: [00:39:23] You're going there's always something. 

Bryce: [00:39:25] Yeah, yeah. Like particularly with the rate at which things are advancing. 

Alec: [00:39:31] You know this is how we put a bow on this episode. It will always feel like there's something in the next ten years if we keep funding cutting edge medical research. And the way that we do that is by supporting charities like HM1. 

Bryce: [00:39:44] Nice. All right. Well, let's leave it there. Thanks for tuning in, as always. We'll pick it up next week.