Money Talks

A friend gave me an online subscription to The Telegraph a few years ago.

Of course I wouldn’t be seen reading The Telegraph but an online subscription is less obvious and I wanted to read the obituaries. It has been a slippery slope and now I read more than the obits and have got to know the paper’s style: an obsession with royalty, multiple health tips, lists (best walks, restaurants, hotel, beaches, etc), robust and unwavering right wing views and blimpish letters (one from me last year).

But I digress, I read The Times in hard copy until I thought maybe I was responsible for too much deforestation. Then I reflected that most newsprint is recycled material and maybe forestry, like palm oil, is sustainable these days. The tipping point came when paper boy Louis didn’t deliver until 10.00 am or later. Now I have a seven day digital subscription. It is much cheaper and previously I had a five day print subscription. I can read it in bed early in the morning or at night if sleepless. I have got used to doing the crossword online and find Soduku much easier online. But the other day, before having my hair cut, I picked up a hard copy of the paper I thought I had read earlier. I found there were stories and articles easily missed online. On balance I am an online convert. I continue to get FtWeekend and The Spectator delivered in hard copy.

I told you I would top up my holding in RIT for this year’s ISA and did so as soon as possible last month. It was at a discount of 30% and I paid £17.28. Subsequently the discount has narrowed and it has gone up to £20 so lucky timing. An advantage of an online subscription is the search facility. Unlike The Rolling Stones I do sometimes want yesterday’s papers. I found The Telegraph tipped shares in RIT two years ago, for good reasons that are still valid, but then the discount was 7% and the price £25. An interesting aspect of RIT is the roughly third of their portfolio in unquoted private equity. This is notoriously opaque. RIT said in March this year the most recent valuations of their PE was at end of September or December 2023. When these holdings are re-valued it will be significant – hopefully significant good news but who knows. Another small wrinkle is their exposure to private equity in Japan. They have cut a sweet deal with a partner who brings opportunities to RIT not available to the rest of the market. Money talks and while RIT pays a normal introductory commission it gets these deals because on booking a profit subsequently pay the intermediary 5%.