Christopher Mills, CEO, Harwood Capital Management, is fundamentally a value investor with a strategy to extract that value so avoiding value traps. Often, an activist investor who will place management or himself on the board to ensure alignment with shareholders, as is seen in his success with EKF, MJ Gleeson, and Augean, which he discusses. As an early entrant to Life Sciences, he tells us what he likes about the sector, including a deep dive into Circassia, and an update on Sourebio following the lifting of CV19 testing for certain travel. He covers some of his investments that he’s excited about, with each, we can hear his strategic thinking, for example with AssetCo where Martin Gilbert, ex Aberdeen Asset Management has joined as Chairman, who is starting to build another leading asset management company; likewise those building blocks with Frenkel Topping and Polar Capital. A very engaging interview that gives us a sense of Christopher, his razor sharp mind, and why he’s such a successful investor.

00:49 Christopher’s career and Harwood Capital
03:33 What are you looking for in the companies in which you invest?
05:30 What about life sciences do you like?
08:03 Circassia (CIR)
12:45 Sourcebio International (SBI)
16:58 Clinigen (CLIN)
18:14 Polar Capital (POLR)
20:07 AssetCo (ASTO)
21:34 Frenkel Topping (FEN)
29:15 Successes: how do you find the right strategy & management? MJ Gleeson (29:40), EKF (30:24) & Augean (33:48)
35:50 When it goes wrong
39:03 Why is the discount to NAV so wide for the North Atlantic Smaller Companies IT (NASCIT)?
44:10 Remaining ambitions

Harwood Capital Management: https://www.harwoodcapital.co.uk/

About Christopher Mills
Chief Executive Officer and principal shareholder of Harwood Capital Management since 2011. He founded JO Hambro Capital Management with Jamie Hambro in 1993 acting as Chief Investment Officer and Harwood Wealth with Alan Durant in 2013 until their respective sales in 2011 and 2020. He is CEO of North Atlantic Smaller Companies Investment Trust (“NASCIT”) which he has managed since 1982 and Executive Director of Oryx International Growth Fund which he has managed since 1995. NASCIT has delivered a total NAV per share of nearly 200x under Mr Mills’ management and is the winner of numerous Micropal Sunday Telegraph and S&P investment trust awards. He has sat on the Board of over 100 companies during his career including most recently Augean, MJ Gleeson, SureServe, Frenkel Topping and is currently Chairman of EKF Diagnostics and Renalytix AI. He was awarded a scholarship to go to university by Samuel Montagu and has a BA in Business Studies.