Temple Bar Investment Trust (TMPL)

TMPL is a £750m investment company established in 1926 that takes a value investing approach combined with deep fundamental research focused on establishing the ‘intrinsic value’ of potential investments. The trust has a fifth of its assets in the energy sector via holdings in BP, Shell and TotalEnergies, which reflects its approach to creating long-term growth by buying companies that have been overly discounted by the market. In this interview, portfolio manager Ian Lance talks to John Hughman about how rising inflation and interest rates have improved the outlook for value investing vs growth; how to identify value; why management changes can often be a good indicator that an unloved company could be ready to stage a recovery; and why taking advantage of the historically long-term outperformance of value investing requires a ‘conviction contrarian’ approach. The company is not held in our portfolios but we include interviews with other respected managers in order to aid perspective.