The Pride - Issue 5 - Autumn 2021 - Magazine - Page 5
M Y BEST INV EST M ENT E VE R
IT’S A MYTHTERY
Olly Russ, co-manager of the Liontrust European Income and Enhanced Income
Funds, on the best investment he’s ever made…
OLLY RUSS
In Finnish mythology, the Sampo was a
magical artefact that generated wealth and
good luck for its fortunate owner. The same
might be said for the Finnish insurance
group named after the myth, which we have
owned for over a decade. Under the inspired
leadership of Björn Wahlroos, the group
has risen from an obscure Finnish insurance
outfit to one of the pre-eminent financial
powerhouses of the Nordics, with controlling
interests in fellow Nordic insurer Topdanmark
and the Scandinavian bank Nordea.
Wahlroos once announced at a conference
that Sampo had no strategy and no core assets.
What he meant by this was that everything is
for sale at the right price (which means the
wrong price for the unfortunate purchaser),
for in Nordic, or indeed European, financials
there are few smarter investors than Wahlroos
and his management team.
He believes Nordic financials are essentially
ex-growth and should be run as cash
machines. That, like its mythical predecessor,
Sampo most certainly is. Over the last 10
years, Sampo has returned around 328 per
cent, slightly more than half of which has been
via dividends. Sampo is forecast to generate
around a 6 per cent yield (the interest or
dividends received) next year, more or less the
same yield I bought it for over 10 years ago.
Even now the company looks very cheap for
such a high-quality business that gives lessons
in best practice to UK insurers (Wahlroos
maintains he doesn’t have to show them his
best ideas).
More from Olly Russ and
co-manager Oisín O’Leary on P14
Issue 2 Winter 2018 - TH E P R IDE - 5