Portfolio manager profile: Brian Eley, Eley Griffiths Group

Eley Griffiths Group's Brian Eley remains moderately optimistic despite the short term outlook continuing to be choppy and sentiment conflicted.

Eley Griffiths Group: Founded by Brian Eley and Ben Griffiths in January 2003.

Experience: 10 months at BT Investment Management, two years as joint head of small companies at ING Investment Management, seven years with Paterson Ord Minnett, and three years with LEK Consulting.

Investment philosophy: At the end of the day we’re looking to be a safe pair of hands. We are trying to get a good return without taking too much risk. Obviously, equities as an asset class are risky, and most people view small caps as an even riskier segment of that. But with that comes the potential for greater returns. We’re trying to achieve the greater returns without taking on the greater risk. 

One of your best calls: In the last 12 months one of our best calls was Equinox Minerals. It is a copper miner with a magnificent asset in Zambia, which produces more than 150,000 tonnes of copper per annum at a very acceptable cash margin.

That project has huge expansion potential, and Zambia is one of the better African countries to invest in. During the year [Equinox] was firstly bid for by China Minmetals, and then that was trumped by Barrick Gold. We cleaned up on that one quite nicely.

Outlook for the year ahead: I think that the very short term continues to be choppy, and we have conflicting bullish and bearish sentiment. However, on a 12-month timeframe we are moderately optimistic. We feel that the growth drivers of China and a recovering US economy will more than counteract the issues of the European community. 

Fund positioning: We are positioning our fund with low levels of cash, reasonable levels of resource exposure, and also high quality industrial stocks that have been oversold.