Wilson Asset Management is one of Australia's most respected investment firms, managing a stable of Listed Investment Companies (LICs) individually specialising in large, medium and small-cap Australian equities.
Founded by high-profile investor Geoff Wilson, the firm's flagship LIC is WAM Capital Ltd (ASX: WAM), which has outperformed its benchmark ALL ORDINARIES (Index: ^AXAO) (ASX: XAO) index by 9.4% per annum since inception in 1999.
Wilson Asset Management is currently on its November 2017 shareholder roadshow across Australia and highlighted several stocks from within its portfolios as part of its recently published presentation. I've compiled a brief summary of four of these companies below.
PSC Insurance Group Ltd (ASX: PSI) is an insurance broker with operations in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The company has been busily acquiring and expanding over the last 10 years and only recently listed on the ASX in December 2015.
PSC enjoyed strong revenue and underlying earnings growth in FY2017 and earlier this month stated underlying EBITDA for the first half of FY2018 is expected to be 20% higher than the previous corresponding period. PSC shares have more than doubled in price since listing and have increased 50% so far in 2017.
G8 Education Ltd (ASX: GEM) is an early education and childcare centre operator in Australia that also owns 21 centres in Singapore. The company uses a roll-up acquisition strategy and announced in September it had contracts in place to purchase another 19 centres, adding to its existing Australian portfolio of 481.
Centre occupancy growth has improved since the end of FY2017 and G8 Education's share price has rallied 30% during the last 6 months. The stock is popular among income investors, with the company's board intending to pay out 70%-80% of underlying NPAT in dividends that currently yield 5%.
Platinum Asset Management Limited (ASX: PTM) is a fund manager run by successful investor Kerr Neilson. The firm specialises in international equities and has $26.5 billion in total funds under management spread across several managed funds and two LICs.
Funds under management (FUM) are a key profitability metric for investment firms, and Platinum enjoyed an increase of almost $2 billion in October. Platinum's share price has been on a downward trend for 2 years but has now increased almost 75% during the last 6 months.
Westfield Corp Ltd (ASX: WFD) owns and manages 35 shopping malls across the United States and London and expects to open a mall in Milan in 2020. The company was listed in 2014 after its international assets were separated from Scentre Group (ASX: SCG) which owns, manages and develops Westfield shopping centres in Australia and New Zealand.
In its recent third quarter of 2017 trading update, Westfield announced average store rent across the portfolio had increased 8.4% year-on-year and retail sales from its flagship malls grew 3.6% over the last 3 months.
Westfield shares are down 11.5% in 2017 but have been trending higher since September.
Foolish takeaway
Most LICs on the ASX publish their top holdings each month and this can be an excellent source of investment ideas for individual investors.
