38: 38th CONKERS' CORNER : 2nd January 2017 : Conkers Corner speaking with Edward Roskill

Welcome to the 38th CONKERS’ CORNER recorded on 17th November 2016. In this interview I have the pleasure of speaking with qualified lawyer, solicitor, corporate financier, former JP Morgan Investment Banker, entrepreneur, co-founder of Strata Partners and millionaire private investor @RoskillEdward Edward Roskill. Edward’s interests in stocks and shares began when he was around 16 years of age after being intrigued by the share price movements in the newspaper and he first started by trading put and call options. Primarily because as Edward puts it “.. with a very small amount, you could make your money do something amazing or lose it completely”. For his 18th birthday, Edward received £500 worth of shares in two companies and this was probably his first proper introduction into investing in shares. Edward went to Cambridge University where he attained an MA Degree in Law. He qualified as a lawyer in 1994 with international law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, practising corporate and commercial law, followed by merger and acquisition work. Edward then made the switch from the legal side to investment Banking, corporate finance, with Robert Fleming and JP Morgan. As an investment banker, he was involved in a variety of transactions including public and private company acquisitions and disposals, private placements, IPOs and follow-on equity offerings. Edward gained a very good ground up view of how deals were put together from his time at Fleming and JP Morgan and then in 2002 he co-founded his own advisory firm Strata Partners http://www.strata-partners.com/, advising technology companies on mergers and acquisitions. Edward focuses, in particular, on IT services, business process outsourcing and software. He has, amongst other transactions, acted for The Capita Group plc on its US$160 million public offer for IBS OpenSystems plc (2008); for IBS AB on its US$100 million sale and, by way of a “Bought IPO”, admission to AIM of IBS OpenSystems plc; for Marlin Equity Partners on its US$32 million public offer for Chelford Group Plc and for SunGard Data Systems on its US$242m successful public offer for Guardian iT plc (2002). Fourteen years on, Edward remains a partner at Strata Partners and he spends about a third of his time working with specific clients and transactions. He spends two-thirds of his time managing his family’s investments, where he focuses on small-cap and microcap AIM-listed investments. Edward’s investment strategy is one of researching smaller companies that are less well examined and less looked at by fund managers, as that is where he finds “little gems” that are sensibly valued. Even then Edward is a firm advocate of visiting the company, meeting and speaking with their management and really getting to know the business before he makes any kind of investment. This enables him to reduce his risks and increase his conviction towards his investments on the occasions that markets impact his shareholdings. Edward stresses that one of his most important tenets of investing is “don’t lose money”. The experienced and astute Edward, states “even now I find I have much to learn”. Listen now to gain insights into how Edward’s deep research, analysis and investments in mainly AIM-listed companies, has led to him becoming an accomplished entrepreneur and Millionaire ISA investor. Learn from the lessons in his successful and insightful investing journey.