Alternative Outlook

Brooks Macdonald Funds (BMF) has launched UK Farming plc, a new asset backed UK farming business. BMF also appointed Christine Tacon as Chairman of the new business and Andrew Christie-Miller as a Non-Executive Director.

Christine was Managing Director of The Co-operative Farms Limited from 2000 to December 2011 and was an executive board member of Co-operative Food Retail. She brings a wealth of experience in the farming industry to UK Farming plc.

Andrew Christie-Miller was Deputy Chairman of Openfield Group until July 2010, a co…

Advanced biofuels that use waste feedstocks to deliver a low carbon footprint and do not compete with food crops are entering a critical stage of development as a number of new facilities prepare to enter service, according to a market analysis by Reuters.

According to the report, many of the companies are turning to wood waste, municipal solid waste, animal waste and cellulosic plant materials to deliver millions of gallons of biofuels.

Reuters said that U.S. government targets that call for fuel suppliers to blend billions of gallons of…

Concerns that gas may be preferred to renewables sees UK fall down ranking of world’s most attractive countries for clean energy investment.

Fears the UK will use gas-fired power stations to deal with its looming energy crisis rather than turn to renewable sources have seen the country drop out of the top five most attractive countries for clean energy investment.

The UK dropped to sixth out of 40 countries in Ernst & Young’s quarterly report, published today, falling back below Italy after a strong performance in offshore wind …

When Hong Kong scrapped all taxation on alcohol sales in 2008, it sent the price of investment wine into the stratosphere. Tax cuts on wine purchases are now set to happen in India, so will a new flood of buyers reverse recent price declines?

Bordeaux first growths are the most traded commodity in the wine market – and the price has been slumping since March.

The Liv-ex Fine Wine 50 index tracks these young wines, and the recent decline has shown no sign of stopping. The index has plunged by almost 23pc over the past y…

Historically gold is perhaps the only store of wealth that has stood the test of time. Politicians and bankers may manipulate the markets short term, but long term gold has always held it value.

Well, gold and silver didn’t manage to cling on to their gains made at the end of last week which, presumably, brings us back to square one.   The dollar is currently calling the tune as the Euro continues to sink on doubts about Greece and resultant contagion afflicting other Eurozone countries should Greece have to default, which currently…

Daniel Kiernan, director of Intelligent Partnership, offers a good due diligence process to undertake for assessing esoteric investment opportunities.

In our previous article we highlighted that there is a case for including esoteric investments in client portfolios where suitable as they can be good diversifiers that offer the prospect of uncorrelated, above market returns.

And since the market crash of 2008, rather than seeing a flight to safety – into strong defensive stocks – we have actually seen something of a flight to …

Carter Jonas’s latest performance review of the Model Estate has reinforced its value as, “a high performing and stable asset class during a difficult economic backdrop,” according to the property consultancy’s head of research, Catherine Penman.

The report, prepared by Penman, assesses the value of returns on investment for a notional rural estate of 3,208 acres, and compares the performance of other recognised asset classes – including gold, wine, antiques, classic cars, equities, and commercial and residential property.

With a…

Fine wine could become much more attractive to investors if the crisis in the Eurozone deepens, according to FT investment columnist John Authers .

He told the LIWF conference that along with silver, gold and art, wine is a non-correlated asset, meaning it is not directly correlated to stocks or bonds.

Given current pressures on the Eurozone, Authers summarised that while a “Grexit would be bad, a total break-up would be an economic disaster for the entire eurozone”. He predicted that a fall in outp…

As global stock markets fluctuate wildly, individual investors, private equity funds and other large institutions are increasingly looking to alternative investments to provide balance and stability to their portfolios.

As we discussed in a previous article on Technorati, given the rapid run-up in agricultural commodities and food prices recently, farmland investments are becoming an increasingly attractive asset class.  For both institutional and individual investors with long time horizons, agricultural land is an ideal method for …

The wine investment market is not as gloomy as it might seem, it has been suggested.

Despite significant price falls of the best-selling Bordeaux fine wines at the end of 2011, this year looks to be “far healthier”, Feargus O’Sullivan from the Financial Times wrote this week.

Investors were encouraged recently when the Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 Index reported a 2.5 per cent rise over the first quarter of the year.

In addition, Mr O’Sullivan stressed that anyone who invested in wine before the market peaked in 2011 “has still done well”.

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