{"id":646785,"date":"2026-06-19T07:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T07:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/646785\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T07:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T07:30:10","slug":"exclusive-ai-impact-demonstrates-uks-value-opportunities-ninety-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/646785\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: AI Impact Demonstrates UK’s Value Opportunities \u2013 Ninety One"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EXCLUSIVE:<\/p>\n

Ninety One\u2019s UK Franchise Fund portfolio manager Ben Needham talks to this news service about the impact of recent AI developments, and investment opportunities in the UK\u2019s undervalued market.\t \t \t \t \t \t <\/p>\n


\n The impact of recent AI developments has had a revolutionary
\n impact, creating investment opportunities on the UK’s
\n undervalued\u00a0market, according to Ninety One<\/a>‘s UK Franchise
\n Fund portfolio manager Ben Needham. \n<\/p>\n


\n \u201cThe tech is revolutionary and it is game changing to a degree
\n for certain job styles and sectors,\u201d Needham told this news
\n service in an interview. \u201cIt\u2019s creating opportunities. If you
\n look at what happened with Anthrophic, an AI safety and research
\n company, they were launching new products.\u00a0There was a big
\n sell off in anything that was software and data related. It’s
\n creating opportunities in that area of the stock market for
\n software like Sages. We also invest a lot in consumer staples.\u201d \n<\/p>\n


\n \u201cWith the UK, there is something for everyone which makes it
\n interesting. There is a broad array of old school sectors \u2013 oil
\n and gas and mining, banks and quality sectors like multinational
\n IT Relx, Experian, a data and tech firm, Sage in software,
\n autotrader and consumer staples like Unilever and Diageo,\u201d he
\n continued. \u201cThat blend of hard assets and quality ones means that
\n the UK market is a vibrant and well-hedged market to invest in
\n capital to get exposure to a wide array of drivers. If AI is a
\n risk and affects software, we are quite hedged. We are enjoying
\n working with a lot of opportunities. We bought Intertech at the
\n end of last year and added to it in February and DCC \u2013 a
\n Dublin-based\u00a0energy distributor \u2013 the price was too low and
\n we have a 5 per cent position in that.\u201d \u00a0 \n<\/p>\n


\n Despite UK politics and macroeconomics, Needham said he is a
\n bottoms up investor. \u201cWe buy them as we think they are better
\n than [the] competition. We look at firms like Wetherspoons that
\n can deal with the political instability, [the] same with Next and
\n Greggs, which are more UK domestic holdings,\u201d he said. \u201cWe invest
\n in quality companies \u2013 a lot of the revenue exposure is coming
\n from outside the UK like Unilever which is a consumer staple. It
\n is very diversified and a bedrock of the portfolio. Unilever and
\n Diageo have had some\u00a0of the lowest valuations for years. A
\n big chunk of our portfolio is vulnerable to private equity. We
\n think there are big opportunities in the UK with firms that are
\n typically better but undervalued. There are a lot of
\n opportunities to take advantage of,\u201d Needham continued. \n<\/p>\n


\n Although a number of investment managers have been investing in
\n emerging markets recently, because the UK has been partly left
\n behind,\u00a0it has created\u00a0a vibrant environment for
\n mispricing opportunities for active investors. \u201cIf you look at
\n quality investment since 2020, it has been left behind a bit, and
\n shares get cheap. We are there for quality \u2013 investment style. We
\n don\u2019t think it can get worse as it\u2019s been so bad. It is a
\n positive for the UK and quality investing in the UK. We are
\n seeing more M&A and buy-backs and cash returns increasing.\u201d \n<\/p>\n


\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a tricky environment but it creates opportunities,\u201d
\n he added. On ESG, he said he works with a lot of firms to move
\n away from carbon-focused products. \u201cWe don\u2019t invest in oil stocks
\n and our carbon footprint is quite low,\u201d he said. \n<\/p>\n


\n Matthew Spencer, head of UK retail at Orbis Investments,
\n also\u00a0finds a lot of investment opportunities on the UK
\n market. “Firms are cheap and undervalued due to the negative
\n sentiment,\u201d he said. See more
\n here<\/a>. \n<\/p>\n


\n UK Franchise Fund

\n Over at least five\u00a0years, the\u00a0fund has aimed\u00a0to
\n provide capital growth and income. The fund invests primarily (at
\n least two-thirds and typically substantially more) in the shares
\n of UK companies (those incorporated in, domiciled in, or that
\n have significant economic exposure to, the UK), which are
\n believed to have quality characteristics typically associated
\n with strong brands, franchises or lasting competitive advantages.
\n The index used in the performance section is deemed to be a good
\n representation of the fund\u2019s investable universe and is widely
\n used, independently calculated and readily available. \n<\/p>\n


\n The fund is mainly invested in securities of UK companies.
\n However, due to globalisation, the investments are exposed to a
\n number\u00a0of other countries. Top holdings include Diageo,
\n Unilever, RELX, Amadeus IT Group, the London Stock Exchange
\n Group, Haleon, DCC, Wise, Experian, British American Tobacco. Top
\n sectors include industrials, consumer staples, technology,
\n healthcare, financials, consumer discretionary, basic materials,
\n cash. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ninety One\u2019s UK Franchise Fund portfolio manager Ben Needham talks to this news service about the impact of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-646785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}