Tom King, the chief investment officer at Brisbane-based Nanuk Asset Management and a Sydney 2000 Olympic sailing gold medallist, draws parallels between his sporting career and the intricate world of global equities. King often recalls his former coach Victor Kovalenko’s mantra, ‘sailing is simple, not easy,’ a philosophy he believes perfectly encapsulates investing. Nanuk Asset Management is a global equities fund manager focusing on industries benefiting from or contributing to environmental sustainability and resource efficiency, overseeing over $1.1 billion in assets. King stresses that achieving consistent excellence in investing is “incredibly difficult,” mirroring the challenges of Olympic success.
Currently, King finds himself navigating market dynamics, particularly concerning the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. While the fund holds positions in companies like Nvidia, Samsung, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, King has strategically trimmed these holdings. This ensures the fund avoids overexposure to the sector, as he believes there is no compelling reason to be exclusively long or short on AI itself. Nanuk’s active management approach, coupled with robust risk management, has seen the fund return 16.9 per cent year-to-date, outperforming the MSCI All Country World Index’s 7.1 per cent gain. The currency-hedged version achieved an even stronger 22.2 per cent return against its 11.8 per cent benchmark.
Beyond AI, King has reallocated profits from high-performing stocks into other AI-related opportunities and “completely uncorrelated areas” such as healthcare technology. The fund recently acquired shares in NYSE-listed Edwards Lifesciences, a medical technology firm treating heart disease, which had experienced a significant downturn. Nanuk has also increased its stake in ResMed, a manufacturer of breathing machines, after market fears regarding GLP-1 drugs impacting its business proved largely unfounded. Other areas of capital reallocation include wind energy and software. King maintains that prudent risk management is crucial, especially as low-cost passive funds also capitalise on the AI boom, noting that current market behaviour “is not going to persist in that manner forever.”
