Navigating the noise – conversations with the Natixis Investment Managers Expert Collective.

Is there still room to play offence with defence stocks?

With the ongoing war in Ukraine, continuing conflict in the Middle East, and a reshaping of the global framework underway since Donald Trump came to office, defence stocks have been hot property in the world of investing. While Australian investors don’t have that many options when investing locally, an exception is ship builder Austal (ASX:ASB). 
Austal has been a long-term holding for IML’s small and mid cap funds, which have seen its share price triple since the start of 2024. However IML portfolio manager Lucas Goode thinks there could still be plenty of upside for Austal in years to come. 

It’s more uncertain today than at any time in my entire career

That is the perspective of David Rolley, Co-Head of the Global Fixed Income Team at Loomis Sayles who has worked in markets for more than 40 years. David thinks that the current White House: “isn't convinced that the global foreign policy, trade, defence, and financial architecture that we've had for the last 80 years serves their purpose.” This is causing considerable change to the global economy and financial markets while making bond, credit, currency and equity markets riskier places to invest.
 
Listen to the full podcast where David talks to Louise Watson about:
How he believes investors should be approaching this great time of uncertainty
Why the structural changes happening to the global economy are the most important in 80 years
Why he thinks the US is a riskier place to invest and whether this is accurately priced in
Whether he believes fixed income will be an effective hedge for equity markets in future
How he is positioning fixed income portfolios in these times and
The lessons he has learned over 40 years in markets

A contrarian manager sees potential upside in downside volatility

Hollie Briggs and the Loomis Sayles Growth Equity Strategies Team are not overly concerned by the current market volatility. In fact, they see it as potentially an exciting opportunity to buy high-quality companies at discounted prices, which are then less risky than they were previously. The Team has been working together since 2006, successfully navigating the Global Financial Crisis and Covid pandemic, which both turned up many more buying opportunities than normal. In this podcast interview Hollie talks to Louise Watson about:
How the Team views this period of volatility compared to times past
Why investors need to ‘look through’ the current volatility and focus on fundamentals to benefit from it
How some measures of diversification can give investors false comfort and the measure which Hollie prefers
Why they continue to back their portfolio holdings, including 6 of the Magnificent 7
Why they first bought Amazon in 2006 and continue to hold it today

Medibank is up 25% this year, is there more in the tank?

Medibank is a long-term holding for IML. While it has performed well over the years, its share price has hit new heights this year as investors turned to defensive, domestically focused stocks amid the uncertainty and macro-economic volatility.

How are IML’s small cap portfolios navigating the volatility?

IML Portfolio Manager, Marc Whittaker, talks to Jason Guthrie about how IML’s small and mid cap portfolios have navigated the recent market volatility and wraps up performance for the first quarter of 2025. Marc also discusses how exposed the companies in the portfolios are to the US’s new tariff regime.

“This should not have surprised anyone” Trump and the great rebalancing

Louise Watson talks to Chris Wallis, CEO and CIO of Vaughan Nelson, about Trump’s tariffs and recent policy changes and the current market volatility. Chris believes that the current market turmoil is an inevitable part of a global change to trade and capital flows that has been going on since 2021 which he calls: “the great rebalancing”.
After a period of US exceptionalism where everyone had piled into US large cap stocks and mega-cap technology, Chris says capital is now flowing out of an over-invested US and “going home”.
Listen to the full podcast where Chris also discusses:
How his portfolios are positioned for this volatility
The countries and geographic areas he is most confident in, including why he thinks Chinese equities are a “dead cat bounce” and investors in ‘ReArm Europe’ should book their profits and move on
The equity asset class where he has his highest personal allocation
The big risk he thinks many investors are not fully grasping.
For those who enjoyed Chris Wallis's macro and market commentary, you can hear him regularly on the Vaughan Nelson Investment Management Podcast on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Apple.  

Small-mid cap reporting season update – big swings, margin pressure

IML Portfolio Manager Marc Whittaker talks to Jason Guthrie about another volatile reporting season in the small to mid-cap end of the ASX. As always there have been many winners and losers and Marc discusses the trends he is seeing including margin pressures and a reckoning for some of the best performing companies and sectors of recent months.
Marc also outlines the performance of a some of IML’s key holdings including Mayne Pharma (MYX), oOh!Media (ASX:OML), Integral Diagnostics (IDX) and Light & Wonder (ASX:LNW).

IML large cap reporting season update: defensive stocks doing well

IML Portfolio Manager Michael O’Neill discusses how investors have been rotating away from away from momentum-driven stocks with high valuations towards more defensive stocks with strong fundamentals in this reporting season. He also shares his thoughts on the performance of the major banks and iron ore miners as well as some of the key stocks in IML’s portfolios including Brambles (BXB), Charter Hall Retail REIT (CQR), CSL (CSL) and Amcor (AMC).

Is this ASX healthcare stock ready to rocket post-merger?

Integral Diagnostics (ASX:IDX) had a great year in 2024; its share price was up around 50% as its business recovered from the post-Covid doldrums. It has just completed a merger with Capitol Health to make it Australia’s second largest radiology provider and IML portfolio manager Marc Whittaker believes this has it well set up for its next phase of growth.
In this podcast Marc discusses why Integral Diagnostics is one of his highest conviction holdings in IML’s small and mid cap funds.

Is the lower middle market the key to private assets alpha?

Nitin Gupta, Managing Partner and Co-CIO of Flexstone, believes that every investor in private assets should have an allocation to the lower middle market as it drives both portfolio diversification and alpha. He says that this lower middle-market focus, along with Flexstone’s relationships and access, due diligence and investment process and strategy all combine to give Flexstone its enviable track record of never losing money on any of its funds, over its nearly 20-year track record.
In this wide-ranging podcast he talks to Louise Watson from Natixis Investment Managers about:
How he first started in investing and why he chose private markets and Flexstone (3min 12sec)
Flexstone’s focus on the lower middle market and its investing ‘special sauce’ (7min 2sec)
The best and worst investments in his career and what he learned from them (10min 30sec)
The growth of private assets and whether there is a bubble (17min 24sec)
Why Flexstone invests in everyday, ‘boring’ businesses (19min 48sec)
How Flexstone adds value to the businesses it invests in (22min 50sec)