Ian Lance

that the earnings can be higher on a five-year basis.

And we're not always going to be right about that, but it is our starting point.

So we're not just buying cheap rubbish.

We are buying things which we think have suffered temporary dislocation.

That might be because of something in the company that's done wrong.

It might be because of an economic downturn.

It might be because of the business cycle or commodity cycle or something like that, but where we can see some sort of route to the earnings recovering in the future.

It is.

And as I say, you do have to just sort of be fairly pragmatic about it and just admit to yourself that occasionally you're going to get one or two of these wrong.

Energy is quite a big part of it for obvious reasons.

And actually, they're a good example that, you know, they obviously were much smaller holdings at the start of the year.

Energy stocks have done very well.

BP and Shell, let's be honest, this was not a call on the oil price at all.

To a certain extent, it was almost the opposite, actually, as we came into the year.

Some of the investment banks were falling over themselves to tell you that the oil price was going to be $40 this year.

And that immediately gives you reasonably high conviction.

But actually, there are some stock-specific stories here as well.

Probably the one I would highlight there is BP, where I'm sure you and lots of the listeners know the story here.

Strategically, they just went in a completely different trajectory over the last few years, decided they were going to sort of walk away from their core oil and gas business and invest lots of money in transition.

Didn't go so well for their shareholders, and they've had a change of management strategy.