Alternative Outlook

Wine could be a good investment as returns on Individual Savings Accounts (ISA) remain low.

Transferring your ISA to wine has seen returns of more than 10% a year.

Peter Shakeshaft, founder of wine investment firm Vin-X, said that they hold onto the wine for the investor to make sure “the governance of the wine is protected” as wine has to be stored in a proper place.

He said that it is a good time to buy wine, and consumers can get an “excellent return” by holding onto it for three years.

The market is impacted by demand in the …

Esty Dwek of HSBC Private Bank’s investment strategy team looks at the factors influencing the price of gold, and asks whether the price is set to trade in a limited range for the time being.

While we remain constructive on the long-term outlook for gold, we believe that prices may remain range-bound in the short term, as a number of factors are likely to act as a cap on prices. First, the significant improvement in investor sentiment we have witnessed in recent months is impacting demand for safe havens in general – as witnessed in t…

Timber prices have been increasing for some time and are set to continue to rise with global demand

Money may not grow on trees – but it can be made from them and investors now stand a better chance of accessing their returns, thanks to an ever-expanding number of open-ended, closed-end and exchange traded funds (ETFs) that invest in timber.

For some time, timber prices have been on an upward trajectory, a trend many industry experts claim will continue in the medium term as the demand from developing countries, in particular Chin…

As the global population grows, the demand for timber could see an 55 per cent increase by 2050.

In these unprecedented times, it’s reassuring to know that some investments, such as sustainable forestry, are flourishing.

Sustainable forestry investments ultimately produce valuable timber, a commodity constantly in demand and used globally on a daily basis as a building material, for paper manufacture and as a fuel source.

The demand for timber is projected to rise in-line with the global population, thus implying an increase of …

Spanish wind power company Gamesa will build a £125m offshore windfarm facility in the port of Leith, creating around 800 jobs, it said on Friday.

The announcement comes just days after George Osborne said in his budget that “renewable energy will play a crucial part in Britain’s energy mix”, after warnings by major wind companies that their investments in the UK were under threat from political uncertainty.

The manufacturing facility, on the northern edge of Edinburgh, will produce blades and generator units for offshore wind turb…

Industry experts talking to OPP Magazine, are calling for a clampdown on unregulated collective investment schemes in the wake of a fraud investigation into a Cambodian green oil product.

An investigation by the Serious Fraud Office is under way into the activities of Sustainable Agroenergy Plc and Sustainable Wealth Investments UK Ltd and the selling of bio-fuel investment products.

And John Howell, overseas property law specialist at John Howell & Co., told OPP that: “No industry can survive with constant accusations of f…

Gold enjoyed another year in the headlines in 2011 and was high on the agendas of many professional investors as they sought to navigate stormy markets.

The eurozone crisis proved a stubborn and treacherously difficult obstacle to circumvent, and an unprecedented number of analysts and advisers were drawn to debating the benefits of holding gold at a time of such extraordinary turmoil.

Investors clearly appear to have agreed with those calling for greater allocations to gold in portfolios, as investment demand in 2011 pushed the va…

There are a lot of influences driving investors to seriously consider agriculture funds, including China’s dietary switch from rice to meat, rapidly rising food prices and growing concerns about climate change.

Investment in agriculture in both the developed and developing world can be expected to rise as the world population grows and demand for food and water increases.

Aside from farming, alternative energy also presents numerous investment opportunities as the switch to a more environmentally friendly energy supply that also …

Money may not grow on trees, but for a time it appeared to grow on bushes—specifically, a tropical shrub called jatropha curcas. Over the past decade, jatropha was planted on millions of acres across Asia and sub-Saharan Africa after research showed that oil from its crushed seeds makes an excellent biofuel. Because jatropha can tolerate dry, rocky soil unsuited to agriculture, boosters said, subsistence farmers could grow it as a cash crop without denting food production. And with governments worldwide pushing renewable fuels, invest…

Simon Greenspan, former futures trader and Gold and Silver Specialist at City commodities broker, Tullett Brown, explains why gold is still a good investment option in 2012.

Gold has been plunged back in to the headlines recently as it reached its highest price since November on February 28th before plummeting on the same day.

Equally, China this week said it is targeting slower growth for 2012, which sent tremors through the market creating fears that the rise of gold bubble, which has been steadily inflating over the last few years,…