Go compare Souter's cash as transport tycoon's fund tops £400m

Published on Sunday 24 October 2010 19:02

THE full scale of Brian Souter's investment interests was revealed for the first time yesterday as figures showed his private portfolio has grown to £400 million over the past three years.

• Stagecoach is the bedrock of Brian Souter's investments

Souter Investments - which includes stakes in Scottish companies Alexander Dennis and Argent Energy as well as the Stagecoach Group which Souter founded- has significantly outperformed the FTSE100 and provided it with a "substantial war chest" to invest in new opportunities.

Although Souter Investments is a private operation to manage the family's wealth, Souter said its growth and increasing level of public interest had led to the decision to produce a regular report on its performance.

Souter said: "The value of our investments has risen handsomely despite the world experiencing the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

"As prospects for a double-dip recession recede we look forward to the future with confidence. Our deal flow is strong and we continue to see many interesting opportunities to invest at attractive valuations."

Between March 2007 and March 2010 the net value of investments held by Souter Investments increased by 41 per cent compared to the FTSE100's loss of 10 per cent over the same period although the total value is down on 2008 when shares in Stagecoach hit record highs.

The Perth transport group made up 50 per cent of the portfolio in March this year, compared to 67 per cent in 2007.

A further quarter is invested in unquoted companies with most of the remainder split between private equity finds and quoted companies.

Stakes held in private companies range from 4 per cent to 98 per cent and include investments of up to 15m in early stage companies.

Larger investments include insurance groups esure and gocompare, motor yacht brand Sunseeker and a clutch of transport businesses in New Zealand.

Scottish private companies Souter Investments has stakes in include Falkirk-based bus builder Alexander Dennis, biofuels producer Argent, business services provider First Scottish and telecoms group Wireless Infrastructure. It has also taken stakes in a number of small Scottish technology companies including CXR Biosciences and Elonics. Souter Investments also looks to invest in undervalued global market funds with a current focus on China, Russia, Brazil, India and Turkey.

Souter Investments was set up in 2006 by Souter and Andy Macfie, an experienced investor with more than 20 years in private equity, and has now grown to a team of five with offices in Edinburgh and Perth. Macfie said one of the reasons for the strong gains seen by the portfolio in recent years was a decision to shy away from the commercial property sector which he saw as overvalued."We believe that the portfolio should continue to grow strongly in the years ahead and we are always on the lookout for new opportunities."

He also highlighted the contribution made to the performance by the holding in Stagecoach.

"Stagecoach is the bedrock of the portfolio and has proved to be a defensive and resilient stock, producing a healthy dividend stream and a very significant return of value to shareholders in 2007. This provided us with the opportunity to increase our investments in other assets."