Fund Manager’s Diary, Jeremy Leach, Manager of the Corinthian Growth Fund and MD of Managing Partners Limited Weekend

Wake up early on Saturday and play a round of golf with my wife, Stephanie. I am a poor golfer and my idea of below par is finding more balls than I lose. I do some work in the afternoon on a Volkswagen Campervan I am renovating before hosting a dinner party for friends in the evening. On Sunday, help my daughter with last minute Easter holiday homework. I’m not so hot on the Spanish but my maths are fine and I make sure my daughter understands the importance of the times-tables. 

Monday
Pleased to see there are no shocks on the foreign exchange markets today. Corinthian Growth is neutrally hedged, but as such, a strengthening dollar would still mean we might have to increase the cash margin covering the hedge. Instead, the weakening dollar means we may well have some cash coming our way. If dollar-sterling moves towards the two-dollar resistance level I have to be ready for any profit-takers selling sterling and euro. I analyse a report on a collection of traded endowment policies we will be selling to a market-maker and I am happy to go ahead with the deal. 

Tuesday
Attend an internal investment strategy meeting and discuss our expectations of currency movements over the next two weeks. We expect sterling to stay strong against the dollar. We agree to increase marginally our small weighting in European property because we are more bullish about it than UK property. I discuss with our consultant actuary some proposed modifications to our purchase criteria for policies. We are thinking of introducing a method of bidding for US policies whereby we factor in returns we can make by investing the cash we hold to pay the premiums on the policies we buy.  It would mean we could offer more competitive bids. In the evening, I chat to a mechanic regarding my campervan. Unfortunately, he thinks it needs a new engine.

Wednesday
I fly to Jersey this morning and have meetings with two banks that are looking to invest in our funds. While there, I also attend a board meeting for my fund at which we approve increasing exposure to European property. I return to Gatwick airport for the second time today in time to catch a flight to Milan in the evening. Unfortunately, there is a mobile furniture fair in the city and my PA has found it extremely difficult to book a hotel room. Prices are high, but at least I might find some furniture for my camper van.

Thursday
The traffic is heavy in Milan and it takes two hours in a cab to get into the centre of the city. I have meetings at two banks, one of which is an existing investor and the other wants us to establish a bespoke fund for them. I get back to the hotel to catch up on hundreds of emails and sanction the purchase of five traded life policies for $3m for the fund. Our investment process involves issuing our purchase criteria to market makers with a minimum internal rate of return based on actuarial analysis, then when we receive prospective policies we obtain two opinions from life expectancy underwriters and calculate premium liabilities to establish a net purchase price before making an offer.

Friday
Am up at 4am to catch an early flight back home. Pop into the office in the afternoon and call in a few bets from friends and colleagues that sterling would go above the $2 mark. Receive a batch of policies from a market maker in the US with an average value of about $750,000. It’s been a hectic week of travel and I have a cold, so I decide it is time to go home and start the weekend.

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