The secret to finding great investments

There is one secret you can use time and again to find the right investment, says Bengt Saelensminde. It's quick, easy and every investor should use it.

It's late on Friday evening. So today I just want to send you a short sharp read before you head off for the weekend. This is a simple piece of advice that I picked up a long while ago - a superb shortcut to finding a good investment.

Basically it's a quick way to judge the health of a company by looking at the company reports. Because there is only one page in a report that you really need to turn to. And it's hidden right at the back - the 5-year summary.

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Row 0 - Cell 0 20102009200820072006
Revenue21,42120,38319,28718,51817,317
Underlying operating profitRow 2 - Cell 1 Row 2 - Cell 2 Row 2 - Cell 3 Row 2 - Cell 4 Row 2 - Cell 5
Retailing671616535429352
Sainsbury's Bank---2-10
Row 5 - Cell 0 671616535431342
Underlying net finance costs-79-113-99-92-98
Share of post-tax profit/(loss) from joint ventures1816-2--
Underlying profit before tax610519434339244
Increase on previous year (%)17.519.62838.92.5
Underlying operating profit margin excluding Sainsbury's bank (%)3.363.2632.542.24
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Row 0 - Cell 0 20102009200820072006
Underlying basic (pence)23.921.217.4139.5
Increase on previous year (%)12.721.833.836.821.8
Proposed dividend per share (pence)14.213.2129.758

Bengt graduated from Reading University in 1994 and followed up with a master's degree in business economics.

 

He started stock market investing at the age of 13, and this eventually led to a job in the City of London in 1995. He started on a bond desk at Cantor Fitzgerald and ended up running a desk at stockbroker's Cazenove.

 

Bengt left the City in 2000 to start up his own import and beauty products business which he still runs today.