With the outbreak of coronavirus impacting global markets, the information below is our latest update on the Octopus AIM Inheritance Tax Service.
A reminder about our investment approach
The Octopus AIM Inheritance Tax Service is invested across a portfolio of between 25 and 30 companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). These portfolios are actively managed by my experienced team of AIM specialists.
These companies are established and profitable. In fact, many of our core holdings are global leaders in their sectors.
The team looks for a sound business model and has a natural lean towards technology and business services. This is intentional, as these companies tend to have more reliable earnings, especially in times of crisis.
We have limited exposure to the areas impacted most in recent weeks. We have minimal exposure to leisure and retail sectors and no exposure to the banking or oil and gas sectors.
We take a three to five-year investment view, so it’s important to bear this in mind against a backdrop of markets that react to hourly news bulletins.
What we expect in the coming months
Equity markets have suffered steep falls across the globe, reflecting the level of uncertainty that persists.
We expect there to be significant opportunities over the next few weeks as markets tend to over-react in these instances. We are therefore selectively buying shares for new portfolios at price levels we believe will prove attractive on a twelve-month view.
We expect to see share prices begin to normalise once the peak of the virus has passed, based on what has happened to share prices in China.