Making money: what the experts think
On the ball
“Football clubs were once notorious for being poor investments,” said Miles Johnson in the FT. But that “received wisdom” is looking increasingly wrong. Thanks to ballooning broadcast revenues, shares in some publicly quoted European teams have beaten the wider market handsomely over five years. Leading the pack is the Italian club Juventus, whose shares have jumped “almost fourfold” in the period. Arsenal’s value has doubled, and Scotland’s Celtic and Portugal’s Porto have also performed strongly. By contrast, Manchester United shares, which are listed in New York, have generated only “a small return”. That looks like a buying opportunity, says UK fund manager Nick Train, who has lifted his holding, arguing that “sports franchises with global appeal” can only benefit from the “aggressive” battle for content between rival online streamers.
Liquid gold
“Recent price gains in the premium whisky market are enough to make investors’ heads swim,” said Hugo Cox in The Times. The Apex 1000 index of rare Scotch whiskies is up by 26% in the year to June – far exceeding the 9% return from vintage wine or the “paltry” 2% from the FTSE 100. The global super-rich “have a thirst up” – a bottle of Macallan single malt went for a record £814,081 at Bonhams Hong Kong in May. But another factor fuelling demand is the “opening up of the cask market” – traditionally restricted to specialist brokers – to “a new breed of collector” keen to be “more involved” in the maturing process – and to maximise their profits at bottling time. Glasgow’s Mulberry Bank Auctions is holding a dedicated cask sale next month. Expect to pay an estimated £200,000 for a cask of Macallan 1989.
Trending…
Picking an investment may soon be “more like choosing a TV show on Netflix or finding new music on Spotify”, said Joe Rennison in the FT. The Swiss bank UBS is trialling “Netflix-style” algorithms to suggest trades to its asset management and hedge fund clients. This is ridiculous, say critics: you can’t group complicated trades into themes as you might indie bands or comedy shows. But it seems this is the direction of travel: “If you liked that junk bond, you might like this.”