Laurence Hulse

And that's materially outperforming our two peer groups, which we define as the Investment Association UK Smaller Companies Funds.

That's the open-ended vehicles.

There's about 60 of them.

And it's outperforming the AIC UK Smaller Companies Peer Group, which is the trusts that invest in small caps.

And we're outperforming both by circa double through the life of the fund.

And listeners can see that on our fact sheets and investment decks.

What makes a gem?

a special company with an attractive price doing something different.

I think what I've definitely refined since we started the fund, and this is my past life running other funds, in this world of higher interest rates, scarce capital, outflows, it's pretty barren.

Companies, their shares have really had to command capital.

And when I did a sort of three-year review of our first three years at the start of this year,

the stocks that had won were sort of what I call world beaters on a London rating.

And we've had some particular case studies with some great returns and it's because they've really been global businesses with IP, with great products, with great strategies that happened to be listed in London and at that London discount.

I think it won't go away until Flo's return.

I think it's a multiple question.

There's plenty of great businesses in our portfolio and other funds' portfolios that are doing great things and their earnings are going up.

In fact, I've got some friends at Shore Capital and Canaccord who deserve a shout out for helping me do the work.

Before I came on, UK retailers, the small cap index of UK retailers, their margins are much higher than the US peers and they trade on half the valuation.

Same with the industrials and the construction stocks.

But the problem, because it all sounds a bit too good to be true, has been growth.