Barramundi ( BRM )

[Anna Naum]

Voltaire - I thought I could rely on BRM to manage the portfolio in a prudent, careful and well diversified manner. I fail to see how taking such a large holding in an extremly risky drug development firm is consistent with good prudential management. Perhaps its being managed with the primary focus of trying to substaintially outperform the market in the hope of the manager looking to earn performancee fees, capitalise a share of the profits for the managers and if it all goes wrong what the heck, the shareholders wear all the risk. It looks like recklessness investment to me.

I believe the vast majority of investors would prefer to see a far more diversfied investment base with no more than 5 % in any one stock, preferrably no more than 3%. Of course that would involve a lot more work and research for the Barramundi investment team...

I remain of the view that given the material effect on the SP warrant holders shoudl have been informed that Pramaxis was in the trading halt especially given that a yes or no has had such a dramatic effect on the SP, clearly a case of substaintial pending uncertainty where warrant holders would normally have been best to sit on their hands and not excercise, (if the company had been reasonable enough to inform them) Good upside, limited downside for warrant holders = do nothing and possibly excercise later, I am sure you would agree. Of course its in Barramundi's interests for warrant holders to excercise, that almost goes without saying so there was a vested interest on their part not to highlight the risk.

I have taken my concerns up with the company.

Roger, one of the best postings I have seen for some time. Have added to your reputation and good luck with the getting a positive reply from the company.

[percy]

Voltaire - I thought I could rely on BRM to manage the portfolio in a prudent, careful and well diversified manner. I fail to see how taking such a large holding in an extremly risky drug development firm is consistent with good prudential management. Perhaps its being managed with the primary focus of trying to substaintially outperform the market in the hope of the manager looking to earn performancee fees, capitalise a share of the profits for the managers and if it all goes wrong what the heck, the shareholders wear all the risk. It looks like recklessness investment to me.

I believe the vast majority of investors would prefer to see a far more diversfied investment base with no more than 5 % in any one stock, preferrably no more than 3%. Of course that would involve a lot more work and research for the Barramundi investment team...

I remain of the view that given the material effect on the SP warrant holders shoudl have been informed that Pramaxis was in the trading halt especially given that a yes or no has had such a dramatic effect on the SP, clearly a case of substaintial pending uncertainty where warrant holders would normally have been best to sit on their hands and not excercise, (if the company had been reasonable enough to inform them) Good upside, limited downside for warrant holders = do nothing and possibly excercise later, I am sure you would agree. Of course its in Barramundi's interests for warrant holders to excercise, that almost goes without saying so there was a vested interest on their part not to highlight the risk.

I have taken my concerns up with the company.

I think they did the same with CCP a few years ago.I do not hold BRM but as I hold MLN I look forward to you posting Fisher's reply.

[buns]

Fair call

The beauty of hindsight ah.

I think it is a little short sighted having this conversation after the event, instead why was no one throwing toys with them having this large holding to start with? Instead of post the poor outcome.

So the 70% fall is irrelevant, if it went the other way would people still be posting messages regarding an unweighted/risky portfolio?

These look like comments in anger towards the 70% drop, not the portfolio composition which was a problem (depending on your view) for a long time.

[Voltaire]

Fair call

The beauty of hindsight ah.

I think it is a little short sighted having this conversation after the event, instead why was no one throwing toys with them having this large holding to start with? Instead of post the poor outcome.

So the 70% fall is irrelevant, if it went the other way would people still be posting messages regarding an unweighted/risky portfolio?

These look like comments in anger towards the 70% drop, not the portfolio composition which was a problem (depending on your view) for a long time.

Agree on all points buns.

Roger, PXS has comprised a major part of the BRM portfolio for years (it was 10% of total investment even 2 years ago - 20/5/09). You have had all the time in the world to raise your concerns with Fishers or to sell out.

Interestingly, they have been moving slowly in the direction of greater diversification that you suggest.

The 5 largest holdings as of 20/5/09 were:

Arrow Energy Limited 19%
Pharmaxis Limited 10%
Pipe Networks Limited 10%
Aevum Limited 7%
Tox Free Solutions 5%

A combined total of 51% for the 5 largest holdings!

(As an aside, the overweighting in Arrow worked out very well for BRM holders)

Anyway, I hope you get a satisfactory response from BRM and will be interested to read it.

[Beagle]

Anna - Thanks very much for your support, the spelling and grammer could have been better but for some strange reason I feel a little hot under the collar at the moment. If I get a reply from Barramundi I'll post it up here word for word.

Voltaire - I acknowledge I have been very lax and sleepy on my investment with BRM, my bad, I thought it was a set and forget investment, of course you are right I should have kept a far better watch and taken more interest. Nothing like a bit of pain to make one reassess their investments. But am I really that misguided to think I can just invest in something like this, set it and forget it trusting that they will excercise good prudent investment methodoligies ? Obviously more fool me, I can't trust anyone to manage my money in a careful dilligent and prudent manner. I should have been alerted to their lack of diversification a very long time ago as you quite rightly highlighted.

What a brilliant company Ryman are by comparison, opps, sorry, I digress....

[buns]

The other thing to note here is you are investing in a stock picking portfolio following a ‘value’ mindset (notice all her buffet comments??), not a fully balanced asset class thing like Gareth Morgan.

Stock pickers buy undervalued stocks/markets. Portfolio composition in these will never meet the requirements you state above.

It's these exact reasons Fisher has beat the overall market over the last 5 years, but as we see here, you will eventually lose out a tad taking that risk.

[Balance]

Anna - Thanks very much for your support, the spelling and grammer could have been better but for some strange reason I feel a little hot under the collar at the moment. If I get a reply from Barramundi I'll post it up here word for word.

Voltaire - I acknowledge I have been very lax and sleepy on my investment with BRM, my bad, I thought it was a set and forget investment, of course you are right I should have kept a far better watch and taken more interest. Nothing like a bit of pain to make one reassess their investments. But am I really that misguided to think I can just invest in something like this, set it and forget it trusting that they will excercise good prudent investment methodoligies ? Obviously more fool me, I can't trust anyone to manage my money in a careful dilligent and prudent manner. I should have been alerted to their lack of diversification a very long time ago as you quite rightly highlighted.

What a brilliant company Ryman are by comparison, opps, sorry, I digress....

Roger, have you looked closely at Carmel Fisher's track record closely?

[Beagle]

How have BRM performed compared to the ASX since inception Buns ?

Balance - Lets have a look at BRM's performance since inception shall we ?

Going as far back as the Direct Broking chart allows me BRM were $1.15 in February 2007 and of course we are now at 77 cents. hmmmm, I'm sorry, I'm confused, can someone please explain to me what part of losing a third of your money over four and a bit years is impressive ?

From my viewpoint Carmel Fishers record sucks and please don't say the dividends, other companies pay dividends too and actually increase in value.

[winner69]

How have BRM performed compared to the ASX since inception Buns ?

Balance - Lets have a look at BRM's performance since inception shall we ?

Going as far back as the Direct Broking chart allows me BRM were $1.15 in February 2007 and of course we are now at 77 cents. hmmmm, I'm sorry, I'm confused, can someone please explain to me what part of losing a third of your money over four and a bit years is impressive ?

From my viewpoint Carmel Fishers record sucks and please don't say the dividends, other companies pay dividends too and actually increase in value.

Look at last page here and make your own call .... 5 year returns a bit well well oh oh
http://www.fisherfunds.co.nz/uploads...owth_May11.pdf


Sounds like you got sucked in by the hype Roger .... why in hell did you invest in something that was stated as a 'stock picking' fund based on under valued small caps in Aust when you suggest you wanted a fully diversified sort of balanced fund

had to laugh that PXS was one of the big movers in April ... probably make the list again in May

[ratkin]

Barramundi does seem to have suffered an extraordinary amount of bad luck .
Trust them to pick a biostock that failed