IML Portfolio Manager, Marc Whittaker, talks to Jason Guthrie about how IML’s small and mid cap portfolios have navigated the recent market volatility and wraps up performance for the first quarter of 2025. Marc also discusses how exposed the companies in the portfolios are to the US’s new tariff regime.

Louise Watson talks to Chris Wallis, CEO and CIO of Vaughan Nelson, about Trump’s tariffs and recent policy changes and the current market volatility. Chris believes that the current market turmoil is an inevitable part of a global change to trade and capital flows that has been going on since 2021 which he calls: “the great rebalancing”.

After a period of US exceptionalism where everyone had piled into US large cap stocks and mega-cap technology, Chris says capital is now flowing out of an over-invested US and “going home”.

Listen to the full podcast where Chris also discusses:

• How his portfolios are positioned for this volatility
• The countries and geographic areas he is most confident in, including why he thinks Chinese equities are a “dead cat bounce” and investors in ‘ReArm Europe’ should book their profits and move on
• The equity asset class where he has his highest personal allocation
• The big risk he thinks many investors are not fully grasping.

For those who enjoyed Chris Wallis's macro and market commentary, you can hear him regularly on the Vaughan Nelson Investment Management Podcast on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple.

IML Portfolio Manager Marc Whittaker talks to Jason Guthrie about another volatile reporting season in the small to mid-cap end of the ASX. As always there have been many winners and losers and Marc discusses the trends he is seeing including margin pressures and a reckoning for some of the best performing companies and sectors of recent months.

Marc also outlines the performance of a some of IML’s key holdings including Mayne Pharma (MYX), oOh!Media (ASX:OML), Integral Diagnostics (IDX) and Light & Wonder (ASX:LNW).

IML Portfolio Manager Michael O’Neill discusses how investors have been rotating away from away from momentum-driven stocks with high valuations towards more defensive stocks with strong fundamentals in this reporting season. He also shares his thoughts on the performance of the major banks and iron ore miners as well as some of the key stocks in IML’s portfolios including Brambles (BXB), Charter Hall Retail REIT (CQR), CSL (CSL) and Amcor (AMC).

Integral Diagnostics (ASX:IDX) had a great year in 2024; its share price was up around 50% as its business recovered from the post-Covid doldrums. It has just completed a merger with Capitol Health to make it Australia’s second largest radiology provider and IML portfolio manager Marc Whittaker believes this has it well set up for its next phase of growth.

In this podcast Marc discusses why Integral Diagnostics is one of his highest conviction holdings in IML’s small and mid cap funds.

Nitin Gupta, Managing Partner and Co-CIO of Flexstone, believes that every investor in private assets should have an allocation to the lower middle market as it drives both portfolio diversification and alpha. He says that this lower middle-market focus, along with Flexstone’s relationships and access, due diligence and investment process and strategy all combine to give Flexstone its enviable track record of never losing money on any of its funds, over its nearly 20-year track record.

In this wide-ranging podcast he talks to Louise Watson from Natixis Investment Managers about:

• How he first started in investing and why he chose private markets and Flexstone (3min 12sec)
• Flexstone’s focus on the lower middle market and its investing ‘special sauce’ (7min 2sec)
• The best and worst investments in his career and what he learned from them (10min 30sec)
• The growth of private assets and whether there is a bubble (17min 24sec)
• Why Flexstone invests in everyday, ‘boring’ businesses (19min 48sec)
• How Flexstone adds value to the businesses it invests in (22min 50sec)

2024 was another strong year for share markets and for IML’s small and mid cap funds. In this podcast Simon Conn, Senior Portfolio Manager, discusses how IML’s small and mid cap funds performed during the final quarter of 2024 including the performance of key stocks.

After a strong year for share markets in 2024 things ended with a whimper as the ASX 300 dropped during December. IML Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of Research Hugh Giddy discusses how IML’s funds performed during the final quarter of 2024 and looks ahead to what he thinks 2025 might bring.