Media

It appears very likely that the New Zealand housing market will turn down – the question now is whether it will be a correction or a crash?

Movio's new deal with Walt Disney Pictures to supply research, analytics products and services is "the Holy Grail" for the company, chief executive Will Palmer said.

The company, which is part of cinema-point-of-sale systems supplier Vista, said that Disney - which nows Marvel Studios - had settled on a multi-year deal, making it the last of the major studios to sign.

"It's definitely the one that, for us, is the Holy Grail," Palmer told the Herald.

Executives said the terms of the agreement were confidential.

Paul Glass: Why business confidence has fallen

New Zealand business confidence has fallen to levels last seen during the Global Financial Crisis. While the magnitude of the decline is hard to explain, as economic conditions are clearly far better than during the GFC period, the direction is far easier to understand. Some commentators have blamed the decline on businesses not getting the Government they expected or wanted.

The recent reporting season in New Zealand provided investors with plenty of food for thought. While the reporting season was mildly positive (over half of our local stocks reported earnings that slightly exceeded analyst expectations), the market moved up by a remarkable 4.4% to record its monthly best performance in 18 years!

As professional investors our objective is to achieve the best risk adjusted returns for our clients. This objective is clear and enduring but the framework that we operate in is constantly evolving. The rules and regulations around investing are dynamic as are the economies and companies that we consider for investment. What is also currently undergoing a change is the level of momentum behind people’s desire for their investments not to just generate financial returns but also to make a positive impact on the future.

At Devon we focus a significant amount of time and energy on the Australian stock market and we have a heavy investment weighting to it across many of our funds. In recent months our Australian exposure has performed well and has helped drive the good returns we have achieved, however over the past five years the Australian market has notably underperformed the New Zealand market.  As we look to the future we are of the view that valuations in Australia are looking increasingly attractive and we are currently identifying a range of very interesting investment opportunities over there.

After what has been a very good month for the Devon Funds we thought it would be useful to acknowledge how well the local market has done over recent years and indicate where we see the potential opportunities in the future.

Devon is proud to have sponsored Colin Thompson and Heart Kids latest fundraiser, Running Everest for Heart Kids.

The Devon investment process is based upon fundamental research that requires us to spend a great deal of time away from the office visiting many companies, and sectors and across a range of countries. We believe this is the very best way for us to understand and manage investment risk. As part of this research program we have recently had a number of our investment team members in China on different research trips. When managing NZ and Australian investments, it is critical to understand what is happening in this market.

Although we wouldn’t typically write on the same topic in concurrent months, we have just conducted some extensive proprietary research on a2Milk (ATM) in China and we believe it is important to highlight our observations. This document also demonstrates the Devon commitment to developing our own investment views, based on our own fundamental research.

Is it possible that the newly crowned emperor of the New Zealand equity market, ATM has, as Hans Christian Anderson so eloquently put it, “no clothes” when it comes to intellectual property protection?