A Message from the CEO

We are now well past the half way point of the year and a number of international equity markets are on track to have a potentially once in a decade rebound. Whilst US markets have recovered since the severe set-back prompted by the Trump tariffs were announced earlier in the year, it has been long suffering European markets and Latin America that have truly rebounded with venom this year after a prolonged period of neglect.

At the same time, Asia has been a mixed bag with strong returns in Korea, but most of South Asia, including India, in the doldrums. China has also hardly left the starting blocks although Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has put in a strong albeit somewhat tardy recovery despite the fact that the USD dollar has been uncommonly weak. Bizarrely, given the currency peg, you can borrow HKD at zero interest rates and invest in T-bills at nearly 5 percent overnight with no currency risk. Some mistake surely?

Across our discretionary portfolios, first half performance bodes well for the full years but then again uncertainly is the watchword. Correspondingly, it’s been a pretty dismal year to date for most of the big hedge funds with the notable closure in Singapore of New Silk Road, a spin out of GIC some years ago and one of few home-grown champions now shuttering its doors.

The real revelation continues to be how AI is changing the business landscape. From robotic process automation across the manufacturing sector to personalised customer experience, productivity is set to improve and by an order of magnitude that most people simply cannot fathom. Drug discovery is being supercharged, and banking and finance, perhaps two of the most inefficient industries in the world, are set to be revolutionised with a refocus on efficiency and a return to active management. On the downside, AI is forecasts to eliminate up to 30 percent of the manpower required to perform many roles including legal and accountancy services. The big law firms and consultants have already dramatically reigned in the number of graduates they will hire this year. 

Bitcoin continues to offer a volatile albeit positive trajectory as crypto is increasing funding its way into institutional and retail portfolios. It’s true utility is still questionable other the is role as a store of value, much like gold which has also risen 29.3 percent year to date. Bitcoin is up 33 percent over the same period in USD. 

Healthcare and Longevity or healthy ageing as we prefer to call it, is also now in the throws of an unassailable growth phase. We have been assessing the opportunities for expansion for a UK based longevity clinic that is focused primarily on men’s health. With a new generation of young adults eschewing alcohol and smoking, and far more obsessed with physical appearance and image that any that preceded them since the Dandies, this is an industry that impacts all ages, not just the over 50s. Whilst the science of age reversal is still in the laboratory, new forms of esthetics and ephemeral rather than congenital or epigenetic therapeutics are increasingly popular and may indeed have longer health benefits if the anecdotal evidence is born out over time. This includes anti-ageing treatments like NAD+ and NMN, skincare such as Exosomes, Profhilo and PRP, and physical rejuvenation and recovery such as Cryotherapy, NPT, Hypoxia treatment and Hyperbaric Oxygen. (For our full report contact sean@milltrust.com).

Across the group, this has been an immensely business period in this both rapid development of our East West customer bases as clients seek the safely of jurisdictions like Singapore and the Abu Dhabi Global Markets, and the develop of new investment solutions to complement our award-winning equity funds. We are investing into the expansion of the digital economy through a new partnership with Inflection Real Estate, building new facilities for the leaders in the part of the economy, as well as backing the growing prioritisation of social care, especially dignified care for the elderly in the UK. We continue to seek income generation from long term secular growth trends.

We launched our Family Investment Portfolios in Ireland as regulated, unitised fund, and pushed out two new client centric initiatives in Singapore with a focus on health and sustainability. Our Future Health has already made ten investments in ground-breaking technological innovations. 

Finally, in addition to a new pre-IPO and small cap India Fund launched in partnership with Narnolia, we are on the cusp of launching Milltrust EM Alpha, a concentrated portfolio of the very best, high conviction holdings of our broadly based GEMS Fund. This is a fund of 40 stocks drawn from 240 in the GEMS Fund and has a pro forma track record that is real, iterative and quite outstanding. 

Again, thanks to all our partners, and of course our clients, for your continuing trust and support.