60 Saturday January 1 2022 | the timesMoney
ers could no longer flick on many of
their favourite sports events or watch
new episodes of shows on network TV
things changed. People flocked to
streaming services such as Netflix,
Disney+ and Roku, as well as to social
media, apps and specialised websites.
“The surge of new viewers
online provided a bounty of new
advertising opportunities, not to men-
tion fresh data on the interests of indi-
vidual consumers.
“The company uses data that targets
individual viewers far more precisely
than the broad-brush approach of
network television. Even better, theFocusrite provides software
for making music and was
founded by Led Zeppelin’s
concert sound mixerservice operates in real time, scanning
millions of available advertising spots
and putting them up for auction.
“Consider an ad spot in a possible
overtime period of the Super Bowl.
With the Trade Desk, an ad spot during
extra time could go up for sale as the
drama unfolded on the field.”Molson Coors (US)
Share price Flat in a yearMolson Coors is the second-biggest
brewer in the US (after Budweiser
brewer Anheuser-Busch). As the fifth-
biggest beer company globally it has aS
tock selection is not for the
faint-hearted, which is why
many investors choose to rely
on the companies hand-picked
by fund managers and their
swarms of brainy analysts.
However, many armchair investors
like to have a smattering of stocks in
their portfolios. For some fresh ideas on
stockpicking we asked fund managers
to reveal ten world-class stocks you
might not have heard of — but which
deserve your attention.Keywords Studios (UK)
Share price Up 21 per cent in a yearKeywords Studios is a game developer,
yet it does not make any games of its
own. It is an outsourced studio: helping
the likes of Activision, EA and Tencent
to develop their blockbuster titles.
Keywords could, for example, translate
the game into other languages, draw
the artwork, do the voiceovers, test the
features or provide player support. It
has provided technical services and
support for games such as Fifa, League
of Legends and Rainbow Six Siege.
Alexandra Jackson, the manager of
the Rathbone UK Opportunities fund,
holds the stock, which is listed on the
Alternative Investment Market (Aim).
“There are lots of ways to invest in the
hefty growth of online gaming, espe-
cially in the UK,” she said. “Buying the
companies that develop and publish
games is one strategy. But what if they
make a shoddy game? Or have delays?
We’ve seen multiple examples of how
that can crater a share price.
“Keywords’ revenue line is five times
bigger than it was five years ago. It has
been buying up smaller players as well
as growing organically. The company is
game and platform-agnostic; owning
this stock isn’t about trying to pick the
next Fortnite or the next Steam. It’s a bet
that the world is going to gobble up
more video gaming content. Judging by
the activity in my household, the trend
looks clear.”Focusrite (UK)
Share price Up 63 per cent in a yearFocusrite is the go-to software and
hardware provider for making music.
The UK-based firm offers many packa-
ges, with its entry-level “recording
studio in a box” bundle at about £200.
This includes a condenser microphone,
studio-quality headphones, all the nec-
essary cables, software tools and more
to give you everything needed to start
writing and recording tracks.
Phil Dudderidge, the company’s ex-
ecutive chairman and a co-founder,
was Led Zeppelin’s original concert
sound mixer.
The Aim-listed company is a holding
in the ASI UK Smaller Companies
fund. Abby Glennie from the fund
manager Abrdn said: “Demand for
music and audio-recording equipment
from podcasters and musicians hun-
kering down during lockdown plugged
the gap in appetite from gigs and
theatre productions.
“The growth momentum is set to
continue. This is not a Covid phenome-non. The group is highly cash genera-
tive, which has helped it to fund several
acquisitions that have only served to
strengthen its offering to its very loyal
customer base from vloggers to profes-
sional musicians.”Amadeus (Spain)
Share price Flat in a yearAmadeus does the heavy lifting for the
travel industry as an outsourced
software provider that manages the
operations of airlines, airports and ho-
tels, helping to lower their operating
costs and allowing them to focus on
core competencies. They also carry all
of the data about flight inventories for
travel agents.
Mark Nichols, a co-manager of the
Jupiter European fund, which
holds the stock, said: “Ama-
deus is a critical partner to
airports, airlines, hotels
and travel agents.
Heavily disrupted by
the pandemic due to
travel restrictions,
Amadeus had a
very difficult 2020.
But this year has
seen volumes recov-
er somewhat as
mobility picks up,
though it remains well
below 2019 levels. We be-
lieve Amadeus is well posi-
tioned to grow in 2022 and beyond as
reopening continues and it wins market
share from its nearest competitors.
“Amid the uncertainty wrought by
Covid-19, we feel confident that the
desire for sandy beaches and far-flung
adventures remains as strong as ever.”ABB (Switzerland)
Share price Up 24 per cent in a yearAlthough ABB, an engineering
and tech company, may not be a house-
hold name its products and systems are
used in everyday lives through its four
key business units — automation, elec-
trification, motion, and robots and dis-
crete automation.
“The company also plays an impor-
tant role in renewable energy,” said
Samantha Gleave, a co-manager of the
Liontrust European Growth fund.
“As the world moves towards creat-
ing a low-carbon future, ABB’s electrifi-
cation business is providing zero-emis-
sion mobility solutions. It recently
launched the world’s fastest electric
vehicle charger — simultaneously
charging up to four vehicles, with the
capability to fully charge any electric
car in 15 minutes or less.”
From an investment point of view,
Gleave highlights that ABB measuresup well to the team’s cashflow-focused
investment process, which looks for
companies that are generating strong
and sustainable cashflows and are at-
tractively valued.
She said: “ABB is on our cashflow
champions list. Management adopts
quite an active approach to managing
its portfolio of businesses and to return-
ing cash to shareholders.”Workiva (US)
Share price Up 83 per cent in a yearWorkiva provides cloud-based soft-
ware designed to help businesses to
ensure accurate reporting of financial
data. It allows companies to collate
widely spread sources of data into a
single source.
This master ledger is accessible
in real time to all the rele-
vant personnel across a
company’s accounting
and audit depart-
ments, allows for
collaborative edit-
ing and copy con-
trol, and provides
financial control-
lers with an accu-
rate, up-to-date
picture of accounts.
Andrei Kiselev, a
co-manager of the
Aegon Global Sustain-
able Equity fund, is a sup-
porter of this business. “Electronic
book-keeping may not strike one
as a particularly rich vein of interesting
sustainable growth ideas, but
a closer look reveals some surprising
opportunities,” he said. “When it
comes to reporting their accounts,
companies today must navigate an in-
creasingly complex environment and
there are significant financial and repu-
tational risks that come with regulatory
reporting.
“Workiva’s software means that the
risk of errors is vastly reduced, making
timely financial reporting much faster
and easier. Having secured dominant
share in the US regulatory reporting
market, Workiva is taking its product
international, and to a new cohort of
clients — US federal customers — who
appreciate the product’s reliability and
high security ratings.
“The company is also rolling out a
tailored ESG [environmental, social
and corporate governance] reporting
module, as more and more firms are
striving to improve the timeliness and
quality of their ESG reporting.”
Workiva remains a long-term hold-
ing in the Aegon fund.The Trade Desk (US)
Share price Up 5 per cent in a yearThe Trade Desk is a media-buying
company that allows advertisers to
purchase digital commercial spots
across a range of platforms — social
media, TV and websites.
Kirsty Gibson holds it in the Baillie
Gifford American fund. “Among the
beneficiaries of the evolving media
ecosystem has been the Trade Desk,”
she said. “When locked-down consum-Ten share tips
you’ve probably
never heard of
Molson Coors shares
are back up after taking
a hit in the pandemic
increase in the share
price of software firm
Workiva in a year Top-performing funds of 2021An oil price rally
catapulted eight oil and
gas funds into the top
ten performers list in- Exchange-traded
funds (ETFs), which
track the performance
of an index of company
shares, did best, with
iShares Oil & Gas
Exploration &
Production the top dog,
returning 69 per cent.
Its biggest holdings are
ConocoPhillips, EOG
Resources and
Canadian Natural
Resources. Then came
the iShares S&P 500
Energy Sector (55.1 per
cent), SPDR S&P US
Energy Select Sector
(53.8 per cent) and
Xtrackers MSCI USA
Energy (52.5 per cent).
The top actively
managed funds, run by
human stock pickers,
not algorithms, were
Schroder ISF Global
Energy (49.6 per cent);
TB Guinness Global
Energy (46 per cent)
and GS North America
Energy & Energy
Infrastructure Equity
Portfolio (44.6 per cent).
Funds investing in
asset management
companies and India
did well. Nomura India
Equity, Guinness Global
Money Managers,
iShares Listed Private
Equity ETF, and Alquity
Indian Subcontinent all
gained over 40 per cent.
The best-performing
investment trust, Baillie
Gifford’s Schiehallion,
is not available on
investment platforms. It
surged 105.3 per cent.
Geiger Counter, whichinvests mainly in firms
producing uranium,
gained 91.3 per cent.
Chelverton Growth
Investment Trust, which
backs small UK firms,
was up 85.7 per cent.
Funds investing in
China and Brazil
struggled. GAM Star
China Equity, Invesco
PRC Equity, Fidelity
China Consumer, Baillie
Gifford China Growth
Trust and JP Morgan
China Growth & Income
Trust all lost about a
quarter of their value,
after the Chinese
government crackdown
on tech, education and
video gaming.
HSBC GIF Brazil
Equity fell 29.1 per cent
and JPM Brazil Equity
25.3 per cent.
David Brenchley83%