IN FOCUS: TOYOTA ‘ HYBRID CARS WILL BE AROUND FOR LONGER THAN YOU THINK’

The whole car industry in Japan has always been well regarded and generally quite highly priced.

As a result we have lacked opportunities to buy into the sector, but carmakers’ shares have now fallen because of the hype around electric vehicles and autonomous driving.

Our view is that the next move in the industry is probably towards hybrid cars rather than pure electric vehicles. Toyota is the biggest producer of hybrids in the world by some margin and we think it is strategically very well placed for whatever changes are going to come.

For pure electric vehicles there are a lot of questions that need to be answered about electricity supply and charging infrastructure so hybrid cars could be around for longer than you think.

Even when we do move towards electric vehicles, we think Toyota can afford to invest in research and development in order to remain competitive. It already has a fantastic amount of cash so it is well prepared for whatever uncertainty is out there.

Investors have shied away from the car industry, but we are prepared to get in there early and wait.

Do you have an example of a bank you like?

Mitsubishi Bank makes 40pc of its earnings overseas and has a stake in Morgan Stanley as well as owning banks in Indonesia and America.

It is consistently making $8bn (£6.3bn) a year of net profit and is trading very cheaply. It is about as low as it has been, yet, when we look at it, it has never been stronger.

Do you invest in the fund?

I have a reasonable amount of money invested in the fund – probably between 10pc and 20pc of my investments in the stock market.

How are you paid?

We are paid a salary and through a fee share. If we don’t perform, clients will leave and we get paid less.

What would you have been if not a fund manager?

I was five minutes away from being a chartered accountant in 1987 when I saw an advert to be a City analyst. I thought that was much more interesting and for me that has definitely proven to be true.