Billionaire Kerr Neilson is still investing, and making good returns. He’s just not ready to take philanthropy advice from Melinda Gates.
Some seven years ago, Kerr Neilson found himself sitting next to Melinda Gates. The billionaire philanthropist and her then husband, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, were in town and attending a dinner thrown by the Pratts.” she later asked Mr Neilson in a letter, according to his recollection, referring to a campaign launched by the Gates and Warren Buffett asking the world’s richest people to give the majority of their wealth to philanthropic organisations.
“The committee would agree with you entirely. [They] could get five papers written on that subject, and they would all concur. And in the last three years, they would have wiped you out,” he says referring to balanced 60-40 portfolios which have been hit in part due to the poor performance of fixed income assets in recent years.Mr Neilson’s returns have amounted to a “handsome” margin above the MSCI Global benchmark over the past five years, although they were down 5.
“We distribute about $12.5 million a year and that is peanuts, in relation to the $10 billion a month the government was spending during COVID. So, I have no illusion that it is of any great import,” Mr Neilson said. “But what I can tell you is if there’s a woman in Ethiopia, or a battered wife here, they will notice the difference. It is very small, but it matters to them.”Mr Neilson set up the foundation in 2007, when Platinum was floated with a $2.8 billion market capitalisation.
Mr Neilson said he was finding “bloody cheap” stocks in Asia in the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia, where good companies are trading at half their book values because of low foreign investor participation.
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