Invest in the Best

Keith graduated with a BSc (Hons) degree in Astrophysics before studying for a Master's degree in Management Studies at Imperial College. His career spans over thirty years in equity capital markets, working in company investment analysis, corporate finance and fund management. He has been Head of Research at Henry Cooke, Lumsden and Daiwa Securities and for many years was Chief Analyst at the investment publication Analyst. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, having formerly been an individual member of the Stock Exchange. He holds the Investment Management Certificate of the United Kingdom Society of Investment Professionals. Prior to setting up Sanford DeLand Asset Management Ltd and the UK Buffettology Fund, he was a self-employed Consultant working with a variety of stockbroking, fund management and private investor clients. In recent years, he has won four stock picking awards conferred by Thomson-Reuters Star Mine. He is regarded as one of the foremost authorities on the investment philosophy of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger and a keen student of the teachings of Benjamin Graham and Philip Fisher.

Introduction: Towards an Investment Philosophy (An outline of the journey that led me to embrace this investment philosophy) Chapter 1: Business Perspective Investing (Investment -v- Speculation; Long-term -v- Short-term; what is Business Perspective Investing? Quality of Business criteria) Chapter 2: Growth is not always what it seems (How growth can drive and destroy value) Chapter 3: Profitability of Capital (Return on equity and capital employed; cost of capital) Chapter 4: Economic Value Added (The interaction of growth and profitability to create shareholder value; retained earnings and dividends) Chapter 5: Cash is King (The need for earnings to be reflected in free cash flow) Chapter 6: Predictability and Certainty (Knowing what the business will look like in 5, 10 or 20 years' time) Chapter 7: Ratio Analysis & Performance Indicators (Identifying trends and key issues from a study of the accounts over long periods of time) Chapter 8: Valuation (A review of various valuation methods; discounted free cash flow; margin of safety) Chapter 9: When to Sell (Legitimate reasons to say 'au revoir') Chapter 10: Synopsis (Summing it all up)