A compelling and cheap investment

At first sight, this professional services business appears a decent investment story, but not a compelling one, says Max King. Yet dig a little deeper and it looks much better.

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Law Debenture's bet on RBS reflects its contrarian streak
(Image credit: Credit: Kevin Foy / Alamy Stock Photo)

At first sight, Law Debenture (LSE: LWDB) appears a decent investment story but not a compelling one. Yet dig a little deeper and it looks much better. LWDB is a curious hybrid: a professional-services business tacked onto an investment portfolio. The former accounts for slightly more than 13% of net asset value (NAV the value of the underlying portfolio); the latter is 75% invested in UK equities.

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Max King
Investment Writer

Max has an Economics degree from the University of Cambridge and is a chartered accountant. He worked at Investec Asset Management for 12 years, managing multi-asset funds investing in internally and externally managed funds, including investment trusts. This included a fund of investment trusts which grew to £120m+. Max has managed ten investment trusts (winning many awards) and sat on the boards of three trusts – two directorships are still active.

After 39 years in financial services, including 30 as a professional fund manager, Max took semi-retirement in 2017. Max has been a MoneyWeek columnist since 2016 writing about investment funds and more generally on markets online, plus occasional opinion pieces. He also writes for the Investment Trust Handbook each year and has contributed to The Daily Telegraph and other publications. See here for details of current investments held by Max.