WEBINAR: Global portfolio maintains 31% annualised return but all eyes on EU, Google

JOHANNESBURG — Emotion and investing are two elements that don't mix, a lot like oil and water. And it's on this basis that all investment eyes have turned to the $2.7bn fine imposed on search engine Google by the European Union for abusing product searches. And as much as emotion may question why, the reality is still to be faced, as any good entrepreneur has to operate within the environment they operate. The move has not forced Alec's hand to dump Google from the portfolio just yet, but it's top of mind given the 'new-found environment' in which the company may operate in. But despite all the noise, the Global Portfolio is still holding on to that 31 percent annualised return, which in any investor's book, is a good return. Tune in again next month. – Stuart Lowman

It's quite interesting to reboot, if you like and to go back a little and understand how this portfolio has evolved over the last two and a half years. We began with a third of the portfolio in Vanguard, in the US market, a third of the portfolio spread between Google and Berkshire, to give it stability. Google with a fantastic business model, and Berkshire giving a spread across the US economy, and roughly the other third was put into five individual share picks. As it happens one of those share picks, Amazon, has been a huge performer and it's come from 8% of the portfolio to 17% of the portfolio. By the same token, Berkshire hasn't really performed well and what we've done is sold half of that stake to invest in Metro Bank, initially, and then we also sold half of the stake in Vanguard and that was reallocated into share picks.

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