Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Finlay Mathers of Edison says that BP is going through a strategic reset. Its full year results show a strong underlying performance. There's a big divestment programme under way. Buybacks have been suspended to strengthen the balance sheet while Capex has been trimmed as the company refocusses on what it does best. Wheaton Precious Metals is a $70 billion company and yet it only has 44 employees. It's the world's largest precious metals streaming company. It doesn't mine anything but finances mining companies up front in return for a share of the revenue. Their margins have exploded as precious metals prices have risen. They have signed a new deal with BHP which is the single most valuable streaming transaction ever. They are the highest-growth name in the streaming space.
Guests: Finlay Mathers
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin is dismissive of a robot that can fold laundry – very slowly and possibly needing remote human operation. More impressive is the forthcoming Dyson PencilWash electric floor mop. He is in tune with the Co-op in Sheffield whose freezers are attracting people who like the C#major chord they play. Scientists at Vienna University have created the smallest ever QR code while Microsoft's aim to store data on glass that will last millennia might have a small flaw. Steve explains why some video doorbells don't spot nefarious activity. There's a military-grade smartphone with thermal imaging and night vision. And the world's largest spherical building, modelled on the moon and containing a 4,000-room hotel is being planned. They just aren't sure where to put it.
Guests: steve caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
James Cameron-Wilson reports that box office is down 32%, though Wuthering Heights is still #1. #6 is the unnerving but funny horror Cold Storage. Witty, in the mould of Tremors, this gruesome tale of a deadly fungus has all the makings of a cult classic, managing the tricky balance between gross-out horror and laugh-out-loud comedy. At #10 is Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, a sci-fi twist on Groundhog Day with Sam Rockwell a traveller from the future trying to prevent the AI apocalypse. A satirical shaggy dog epic in the manner of Terry Gilliam, it is very funny and chilling at the same time. James admired the Netflix documentary The Perfect Neighbour. Largely taken from police bodycam footage, it is about a neighbourhood tragedy in Florida. Although it is widely tipped for an Oscar, he is not sure of its merits as a watchable movie.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University wonders what the Gorton and Denton by-election could portend for British politics. Could it be another signpost to the end of traditional two-party politics? Is something going wrong for the established political class? Might it signal the end of Starmer's Premiership? Tim cites both a study into NHS maternity services and a statement from a former health minister that doubling the NHS budget over 20 years has made no difference to the nation's health as evidence of the truth of Gammon's Law about the growth of bureaucracy displacing useful work. Lastly, he and Simon discuss the loss of a mutual friend, Simon Richards, former chief executive of the Freedom Association. Dubbed "the nicest man in British politics", he wore his politics lightly but had an amazing talent for bringing people together. In an age where politicians are so earnest and serious, we need more people like Simon. He, and his infectious laugh, will be much missed.
Guests: Professor Tim Evans
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says that #1 Wuthering Heights, written and directed by Saltburn's Emerald Fennell, is not a close adaptation of the novel and has attracted criticism for casting Jacob Elordi alongside Margot Robbie. However, it is thoroughly entertaining, has a great score and production design and is also quite funny. He found it a cinematic delight and feels Fennell is a national treasure. #3 Crime 101 with Chris Hemsworth and a great cast is a rare LA movie actually filmed there. James enjoyed it. Not only is it a good crime thriller, but the characters are very human. On Blu-Ray for the first time is the Oscar-nominated 1974 East German film Jacob the Liar. A darkly comic movie set in a Jewish ghetto in 1944, it is in similar vein to the much later Life Is Beautiful. The disc comes with lots of great extras.
Guests: james cameron-wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Russ Mould of A J Bell says that AI interest has switched from looking for winners to searching for potential losers. But it's been indiscriminate and has included quality software services and data analytic companies. They have a walled garden of data, sticky customers, high margins, predictable cash flows and consistent dividend growth. In fact, their share prices peaked last year, probably because they were on very high ratings compared to the market and thus had a small margin of safety. The question now is, when are the doubts priced in? What multiple would you be prepared to pay, given that the market is on a 13.5 PE and that they mostly have proprietary data which can't be scraped by AI?
Guests: Russ Mould
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Political commentator Mike Indian marvels at the Prime Minister's extraordinary survival act over the past fortnight or so, despite the circling vultures. His new cabinet secretary, Antonia Romeo, has just been appointed to disprove the talk of an inner circle "boys' club", but it's a moment of maximum danger for the Labour government with public anger at central government and the elite at a peak. Starmer probably only has weeks left, particularly after the astonishing U-turn over cancelling local elections and the revelation that the legal advice on this only came to light just ahead of Reform's court case. However, the battle for Starmer's soul is not over. This week also saw the unveiling of Reform's "shadow cabinet", aiming to show that they can be seen as a credible political force with a broad team ready to govern. If they do as well as predicted in the local elections, this will make life for the party more complex and expose them to yet more scrutiny. It would be ironic after what has transpired if there is a low turnout.
Guests: Mike Indian
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin is surprised by research showing that children are mostly watching YouTube on television. 20 years on, the V&A is mounting an exhibition on YouTube. The GPT-4o chatbot, which served as virtual boyfriend and girlfriend to many, was turned off the day before Valentine's Day. Hollywood is nervous about the Seedance 2.0 AI video generator which has produced a clip of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting as realistically as if from a big-budget action movie. Somebody has paid a quarter of a million dollars for a toy car, though admittedly a Ferrari. A proposed airship wind energy system will need to rise up on a 2km cable. Apparently 1 in 15 cars have a ghost number plate that can't be read by traffic cameras. A crowd-funded badge will let you display photos or even videos. Elon Musk has switched his future city from Mars to the Moon. And Steve warns of a new "gifting" scam.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Liam O'Byrne of Edison Group highlights HG Capital Trust, a £2bn private equity investment trust in the FTSE 250 which specialises in unquoted software companies in Europe and North America. It was recently hit by the widespread worries about AI's effect on software businesses but in fact most SMEs don't have the ability or confidence to develop their own in-house software and, as a result, HGT's shares have recovered somewhat. However, they are still at a 17% discount to NAV whereas normally there's little or no discount. With AI complicating things so much, it makes sense to get exposure to the sector through good fund managers. Patria Private Equity Trust is an £850m investment trust which concentrates on lower and mid-market companies and is at a 28% discount to NAV. It anticipates a strong rebound in 2026 with many investments ripe for realisation. It aims to exit half of its top 10 holdings this year.
Guests: Liam O'Byrne
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson says that #1 Sam Raimi's Send Help, with Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien, the tale of a work couple being stranded on a desert island, seems overfamiliar. Blending comedy and thrills, he enjoyed it in a schlocky way. #19 is 100 Nights of Hero, a bonkers movie based on a graphic novel with Richard E. Grant and Felicity Jones. Set in a parallel, colour-blind world it's about storytelling and the empowering of women. It does have a distinctive look but is all too flat and needs a stronger director and style. Far more impressive is Anniversary on Netflix. It stars Diane Lane as the matriarch of a close-knit family and is a state-of-the-nation epic with a frighteningly prescient script. There's so much going on, James had to watch it again. Very credible, often tense and with a strong cast, it's a really brilliant movie he discovered completely by accident.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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