The Sharestock September 5 speakers lineup is now confirmed, and with only 12 of the original 100 places still available at the annual event by the River Dee between Chester and Wrexham, the window to attend is closing fast.
Tom Winnifrith, who organises the day, has announced that both of the investors sometimes called Britain’s Buffetts will appear this year. Jim Mellon speaks just before lunch; Nigel Wray takes the slot immediately after. In previous years, only one of the two has appeared at a time.
Mark Slater and a Lineup Built Around Small-Cap Stock Picking
The Sharestock September 5 speakers include a new addition: Mark Slater, who co-founded Slater Investments in 1994 and serves as its Chairman and Chief Investment Officer. Winnifrith describes him as the most gifted small-cap fund manager in Britain.
The track record behind that description carries some weight. The Slater Growth Fund fact sheet for July 2024 shows cumulative performance since the fund’s inception of 242.8%, against 73.6% for the IA UK All Companies benchmark over the same period. As of that date, This is Money’s fund overview shows the portfolio had 42.5% of its market capitalisation in micro-cap stocks and a further 36.7% in small-cap stocks, meaning the vast majority of the fund sits in the smaller end of the market.
Slater Investments’ investment methodology centres on finding companies with reliable, above-average earnings growth backed by healthy cash flow, and buying only when the PEG ratio (the price-to-earnings ratio divided by the earnings growth rate, a measure of whether growth is fairly priced) is relatively low. For ISA investors who pick individual small-cap shares, that analytical discipline is worth hearing explained directly.
Bitcoin in the Treasury and the AI Bubble Question
A new session pits Winnifrith, who is sceptical of bitcoin as a company treasury asset, against Andrew Webley, founder and chief executive of The Smarter Web Company, which has positioned itself as Britain’s largest publicly listed bitcoin holder after listing on the London Stock Exchange. According to Yahoo Finance, The Smarter Web Company’s shares rose as much as 23% after Webley published a quarterly update making the investment case for the stock. Webley has noted that bitcoin fell approximately 25% in the first quarter of the year, which he described as its worst opening quarter in eight years, yet framed that as context for his bull case rather than a reason to step back.
For investors trying to decide whether to follow companies that are buying bitcoin as a balance-sheet strategy (rather than as their core business), the bear-versus-bull format should make the trade-offs concrete. You can find more background on The Smarter Web Company’s LSE listing via CryptoRank.
Separate from the bitcoin debate, Barry Downes and Brian Kinane will tackle whether artificial intelligence is a bubble, which listed companies face being disrupted out of existence, and how working lives across sectors will change. That session is likely to interest any investor with broad UK or global equity exposure.
Company Bosses on the Hot Seat
Peter Brailey will interview two chief executives. One is Cathal Friel of European Green Transition (AIM: EGT), which focuses on acquiring and operating revenue-generating businesses in the critical infrastructure sector across the UK and Ireland. Friel is a serial entrepreneur who has listed five companies on the London Stock Exchange. He co-founded Amryt Pharma, which was acquired by Chiesi Farmaceutici for $1.48 billion in April 2023. The other is Chris Gilbert of Eco Buildings.
European Green Transition’s broader business profile shows a company still in the early stages of building its critical-infrastructure portfolio, which makes a direct Q&A with Friel more useful than most analyst notes at this stage.
The Sharestock September 5 Experience Beyond the Speakers
The format is deliberately informal. There is a pizza evening the night before, a chef-prepared lunch on the day, and a cold salmon supper with home-made ice cream in the evening. Jaya Winnifrith’s plum and ginger cake stand, croquet on the lawn, and Bara Brith at tea are apparently returning features. Camping by the river is available for those who want to make a full weekend of it.
Returning attendees will recognise speakers such as Lucian Miers and Evil Banksta alongside the regulars. The full schedule of timings is expected to be confirmed within the next few days, with logistics notes going out to those already booked.
With 12 places left, the question is simply whether any of those seats belong to you before they go. The next confirmation of pricing or a sold-out announcement will likely be the last update before September.
