Author: First Samuel

Ranelagh Club Centenary Golf Day – 2026

On Friday, the 15th of May, Ranelagh members, guests, and the local community came together for some friendly competition and good conversation. First Samuel was delighted to sponsor the event, enjoying the day, and getting involved in playing alongside members. Sponsored by First Samuel Wealth Management – now open in Mount Eliza

The slowdown is becoming harder to ignore

Two developments dominated the week.
Reliance Worldwide, one of the largest holdings in clients’ portfolios, received a $ 4.75-per-share takeover proposal from Brookfield. It followed EQT’s bid for Cleanaway only days earlier. Two of our largest holdings have therefore attracted takeover proposals within a week.

Year in review FY26 – a ‘narrow’ return in a complicated year 

This week’s Investment Matters is deliberately contemplative 

At first glance, FY26 looks like a perfectly acceptable year for Australian equities. 

The ASX 300 delivered a total return of 6.1% including dividends. Our clients did slightly better than this. But as so often happens in markets, the headline number tells only a small part of the story.

Bond yields, Budget fallout, Brambles, Elders, Ora Banda Mining and Worley

In this week’s Investment Matters, confident that the many twists of Iran, the Australian political malaise, and prognostication on interest rates can wait another week, if not longer, we return to the discussion of stocks. 
We felt it was useful to revisit CSL Limited, a great Australian company with a valuable global franchise that has underperformed as a stock in recent years.

Reporting season concludes – EarlyPay, Inghams, Healius and economic data from the Commonwealth Bank 

During reporting season, Investment Matters will update clients on all the results for portfolio companies in a simple table that outlines the share price impact of the results, along with short notes on our views of the results.

Readers should expect to see instances where we believe the result was positive, yet the stock market reaction was the opposite, and vice versa. Such mismatches are often due to the difference in investment timeframes. We are assessing company results with a medium-term valuation perspective.

Medical rooms ownership: Opportunities and pitfalls

Female doctor seeing a patient in her medical room

When the share-market does not see value or investment merit in a particular stock the stock’s share price will recede. This could be because the company’s earnings (i.e. profit) outlook is poor (e.g. Bega Cheese Ltd) or perhaps the industry in the which the company operates is struggling (e.g. ARN Media Limited).
But often someone or a company will see value where the share-market does not. The logical outcome of this is one of the more interesting aspects of investment: the merger or the acquisition. Or, in jargon: M&A.