Fund Manager Comments: Fundsmith 2023 AGM Notes

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A version of this was also published on my Twitter account.

Introduction: Below are my notes from Fundsmith’s 2023 AGM, which consists of a presentation by CEO Terry Smith and Head of Research Julian Robins, followed by a Q&A session. The presentation covered 2022 performance and portfolio changes, while the Q&A discussed some holdings further and touched on potential targets and macro. (Where available, I have linked each company mentioned to my published research.)

2022 Performance

1/ Fundsmith lost money and underperformed the market in 2022. Terry Smith has always warned people that these could happen in some years, and 2022 just was not a year for the kind of investing Fundsmith does. However, in his experience, style rotation products (for example those that switch between value and growth) have never worked.

2/ "Defensive" sums up Fundsmith’s key contributors in 2022, and "Tech" sums up detractors, but Smith does not like the Tech label because it is not representative. For example…