Eco Investor December 2015

Features

Finding Ethical Stock Market Stars

Rising Star Research is a new service looking to uncover rising stock market stars of the future. It produces independent and quality business analysis reports for investors with a focus on ethical micro cap companies below $250 million in market capitalization.

The founder and principal, Simon Turner, says this is an area where the investor information challenge is most extreme. "We are confident our report-writing can make a significant contribution to the quality of the investor relations message which will ultimately impact upon a company's shareholder base and management premium longer term.

"We only work with ethical companies which we regard as rising stars of the future as we want our brand name to become meaningful and to add to the positive investor relations message."

Simon Turner

When identifying rising stars, Mr Turner looks for a leading niche market position, clear competitive advantages, a high return on capital employed, quality management, low quality or no research coverage, sound environmental, social and governance practices and an ethical approach, and unrecognized potential for superior returns.

The Rising Star Research reports present the business case rather than the investment case. While they are linked, Mr Turner says the difference is that he is not presenting investment recommendations but a clear analysis of long term business opportunities and risks which investors can use to inform their long term investment decisions.

Mr Turner is an ethical/SRI issues specialist and an experienced international analyst and fund manager. He worked for 16 years as a professional investor in Sydney, London, Edinburgh and now Brisbane. Since 2000, he has specialized as a portfolio manager of smaller companies funds in some world leading fund management groups including Bluecrest Capital Management. During this time, he met chief executives from around the world on an almost daily basis.

He says that one of the key lessons he learnt about investing in smaller companies is the importance of taking a long term view and focusing on the business fundamentals. He believes that avoiding the external ‘noise' is a key to successful investment decisions.

Mr Turner is a CFA charterholder and has completed the Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia, the Investment Management Certificate from the CFA Society of the UK, and the MSc in Carbon Management from the University of Edinburgh.

Mr Turner had two articles recently published in Eco Investor - on Energy Action and Beacon Lighting.

He said his new service offers sustainable and competitive pricing with low report maintenance fees. See www.risingstarresearch.com.au.

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