Meet the small company prospector who unearthed gems like Afterpay and Bellamy’s

Stockbroking is a dangerous game. Investors depend on your advice, but the smallest slip-up can see the relationship turn nasty. As a result, most brokers tend to be as conservative as possible; not Hugh Robertson.

Robertson a 40-year veteran of the stockbroking scene in Melbourne, thrives at the risk end of the curve, specialising in micro and small cap stocks. He works like a gold prospector out in the field with his metal detector looking for the next big discovery.

His list of wins includes Monadelphous (ASX: MND), Service Stream (ASX: SSM), Bellamy’s (ASX: BAL), Hub24 (ASX: HUB), Afterpay and PSC Insurance (ASX: PSIN). He found most of those companies well before they'd been researched by the investment community and, in some cases, even before they listed on the share market.

Robertson has a unique style. He does not rely on numbers to make his decisions. To make matters harder, he has always found reading difficult. Instead, following his natural instincts, he garners information by getting to know people.

His conversations are endless and his intuition for what might work is uncanny. Most investors would've run into Robertson on Collins Street, with a cigarette in one hand and his mobile phone in the other, on the scent of the next big thing.

That doesn't mean he gets all his stock calls right – far from it. Like anyone dealing in small companies, there are always disappointments. His troubled children include Envirosuite (ASX: EVS) and Maggie Beer (ASX: MBH), but the ledger sits firmly in the positive.

Interestingly, Robertson is comfortable sitting on the boards of the companies he backs. Some people in the investment community would describe this as unorthodox, but Robertson likes to make sure he knows the people running the companies he's recommending to his clients. And if the company heads down the wrong path, he's prepared to make the changes required to right the ship.

His other great love is the land. Like most Collins Street farmers, it has been a rocky road. Early setbacks, though, have subsequently led to some prize properties in rural Victoria and probably the best garden in the state.

In this episode of Success and More Interesting Stuff, I speak with Hugh about his path to stockbroking, his passion for prospecting and some of the incredible stories he has brought to the market.

More ways to listen

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Timecodes

• 00:00 Intro
• 2:30 The Iron Carbide story
• 7:55 Hugh’s early life on the land
• 9:37 Gardening on the side
• 12:15 An inherited portfolio
• 15:50 Managing epilepsy
• 18:07 “I’ve always felt sympathetic to anybody going for a job”
• 21:29 Early career influences
• 22:23 Hugh’s early career in broking
• 29:42 Monadelphous
• 32:50 Stock picks that paid off: Afterpay, Bellamy’s, PSC Insurance, Johns Lyng
• 41:58 The role of corporate boards
• 45:53 What success looks like
• 47:45 Bellamy’s
• 50:32 The changing face of stockbroking
• 54:17 Some companies Hugh likes right now
• 59:00 Why he loves discovering stocks

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