Investment guru Anthony Bolton says he has started buying shares again

Investment guru and Litvinenko opera composer Anthony Bolton says he has started buying shares again

  • Bolton said investors should not ‘get more bearish as the market goes down’ 
  • He gave up fund management in 2014 to focus on music and philanthropy
  • The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko opera is set to premiere in mid-July 

Anthony Bolton, one of Britain’s best-known fund managers, has started investing in the stock market again. 

Bolton, who has been one of the UK’s most successful investors over the last four decades, said he returned to investing in a personal capacity despite the difficulties currently facing the global economy.

He told the Financial Times: ‘I’ve started to invest. I will say to people I think at these prices there are really interesting opportunities.’

Bolton gave up fund management in 2014 to concentrate on music and philanthropy after spending five years in charge of Fidelity China Special Situations and running Fidelity Special Situations from 1979 to 2007

‘I wouldn’t necessarily invest all your money at the moment, if you have money to invest — and many people don’t. The key message to investors is don’t get more bearish as the market goes down.’

Bolton did not say in which companies he had made investments. Still, he remarked that the ‘extraordinary measures’ taken by the government to shore up key businesses would further enhance the support being offered to them.

He believes the harm to shareholders from the coronavirus will not be like the global financial crisis of 2008-09.

‘I think it is slightly different this time. If we do see some sort of rescue for BA, I’ll be very interested to see on what sort of terms it will be.

‘People have to be open to the possibility that it’s not going to be as draconian for shareholders as it was in the global financial crisis,’ he says.

Bolton gave up fund management in 2014 to concentrate on music and philanthropy after spending five years in charge of Fidelity China Special Situations and running Fidelity Special Situations from 1979 to 2007. 

Since his departure from Fidelity in 2014, he has composed an opera, The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko, on the murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvnenko in 2006 that is due to premiere in mid-July, depending of course on the impact of Covid-19

Since his departure from Fidelity in 2014, he has composed an opera, The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko, on the murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvnenko in 2006 that is due to premiere in mid-July, depending of course on the impact of Covid-19

A significant success for Anthony Bolton was Nokia, which he invested in before the company became a telecoms behemoth

During his 28 years controlling Fidelity Special Situations, the Cambridge graduate developed a reputation as one of the most profitable fund managers in the UK.

If you put in £1,000 in the Special Situations fund in December 1979, you could expect to a return 147 times larger in December 2007 when he departed.

His trick was to conduct substantial research on companies, spread the risk, but also find firms that he thought were undervalued by the stock market. 

Bolton invested in Nokia in the days before it became a successful telecoms behemoth

Bolton invested in Nokia in the days before it became a successful telecoms behemoth

Such was his success that business journalist Jonathan Davis wrote a flattering book titled Anthony Bolton: The Anatomy of a Stock Market Phenomenon, that was published in the mid-2000s.

His second spell in the fund management world from 2009 to 2014 was less successful though. Bolton made bad investments in the Chinese market, and his employment of gearing amplified the losses his investors made.

Since he departed from Fidelity, he has composed an opera on the murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 that is due to premiere in mid-July, depending of course on the impact of Covid-19.

The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko takes place in both Russia and Britain and is set to a libretto by Kit Hesketh-Harvey that uses a 52-piece orchestra and full chorus in its two-hour production.  



Source link