Episode 6: Investor Insight
Exclusive Investment Insights with Andrew O’Flaherty
In this episode of “The Business Catalyst,” host Sadaf Abbas interviews Andrew O’Flaherty, a seasoned investment analyst. O’Flaherty discusses his transition from academia to a career in finance, detailing his experiences across major financial institutions and his own entrepreneurial venture in investment advisory. He emphasizes the strategic importance of understanding market complexities and adopting targeted, high-conviction investment strategies. This episode provides deep insights into navigating financial markets and equips investors with essential tools for managing market uncertainties.
About Our Guest
Andrew O’Flaherty
Investment Professional | Sustainable Finance Expert | Strategic Advisor
Andrew O’Flaherty is an esteemed investment professional and founder of Fighting Financials. His extensive experience includes roles at Credit Suisse, Ambienta SGR, and RBC Capital Markets, focusing on special financial situations and sustainable investments. An alumnus of the University of Warwick and the University of Oxford, Andrew is known for his strategic investment insights and dedication to sustainable practices.

Also Available On Your Favorite Platforms
What You’ll Learn:
- Navigating Investment Landscapes: Insights into effective strategies for navigating the complexities of investment markets.
- Founding a Niche Business: Understanding the challenges and processes involved in establishing a niche investment research firm.
- Risk Management in Investments: Learning the nuances of managing risk across different investment scenarios.
- Career Transitions: From academia to financial services, exploring the personal and professional growth through transitions.
- Impact of Personal Motivations: How personal events, like becoming a parent, can redefine professional goals and risk-taking behaviors.
- Entrepreneurial Insights: Gaining perspective on starting and scaling a specialized service in the financial sector.
- Industry Analysis: Detailed discussions on financial services sector analysis, including equity and credit market dynamics.
- Client-Centric Approaches: How to tailor investment strategies to meet diverse client needs and expectations.
- Market Trends and Opportunities: Identifying current and emerging opportunities within the financial markets.
- Personal Narratives in Professional Growth: Linking personal life experiences with professional financial strategies and business development.
Transcribe
Sadaf Abbas: Welcome listeners to another episode of our podcast. Today we have the privilege of hosting Andrew, an esteemed investor, an investing professional, private investor with impressive many years of experience in the investing field. We would like to know more about Andrew, what his experience is, why he is starting his own venture and why he is using this field and what kind of problem he is solving right now in the market. So back to you, Andrew. Thank you so much for taking the time over here and please brief us about your career, your education and your journey.
Andrew o’Flaherty: Sadaf, thank you for inviting me to talk. I know we connected a few months ago and the timing wasn’t right, so it’s great that we reconnected to make this happen. Yeah So I’ve been investing for the last, last decade. So I finished my master’s degree in politics of all things in 2014 and quickly moved into the investing world, doing some internships in one or two hedge funds. I worked then in equity research.Probably the largest institution, God rest its soul, that I worked at was the late credit Suisse. So I was there for about 4 or 5 years doing a combination of research and then also working on the trading floor. So I’ve had a range of experiences across financial services.
But one thing that’s been consistent has been a focus on investing as an analyst. If people, if the cocktail party says, Andrew, what do you do? I say, I’m an investment analyst. So I think that’s in my blood and part of who I am. And then secondly, this focus on financial services. So I’ve always gravitated towards analysis of banks or asset managers or diversified financials. Really the sector that’s so often misunderstood, it’s so important. It’s 30% of the index in the UK on the equity side, more from a fixed income and credit perspective. But it’s little often that it’s poorly understood, invested, intimidated by the interest rate context, the macro context, and certainly the regulatory context. So that’s always been an area of focus in the last decade for me.
Sadaf Abbas: So I would like to know more about what inspired you to pursue a career in investing areas.
Andrew o’Flaherty: Yeah, it’s a great question. So when I did my master’s degree, I did my undergrad at Oxford in history and English of all things, and then the masters in international relations. So politics, I thought I wanted to be an academic and I basically changed my mind. And I came across, as so many people do, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, some of the kind of notable activist investors at the time as well, who were kind of making waves in, in mainly corporate America.
And I just found it inspiring. There was something about investing in a way like academia.I always say when I’m talking to people, investing, for me anyway, is you’re basically trying to predict the future. And the portfolio that you build of stocks or bonds or whatever it may be, is simply the framework through which you express your view of what’s going to happen next. The phrase would be, if I knew what was going to happen tomorrow, I’d be a billionaire, because you just build a portfolio of securities to express that view. So I was always attracted to that view, that the day to day life of an analyst is just trying to figure out what happens next, and you just build a set of tools in order to do that. So some of those are clearly mathematical, economic, but some might also be psychological, historical analysis.
When a CEO goes into a room and says, we’re going to produce earnings of X in X years, they’re basically telling you a story. People always say to me, how can you study english literature and go into investing? But in a sense, forecasting or taking a view on stocks or whatever is a form of storytelling. For me, it was that obvious choice, and it allows you to have that intellectual focus. And the final point is, so many of the rules of investing are rules for life. Be brave when other people are fearful. Never waste a good crisis. There are so many of these truisms that apply to investing, which are also lessons for life. So that inspires me every day to do this job.
Sadaf Abbas: Same things happened to me, Andrew, when I first started my financial consultancy and doing the forecasting, the same goes to me. This client is telling us the story. Okay. They are going to build their own venture, they are going to build their own startup, and what the numbers we can easily predict as per the current situation. So, yes, absolutely. This is very, you can say, we love it, our work.
That’s why we are helping our clients very well. We know what their pain is, and then we are coming with the solution and we are predicting the future with the current scenarios. Okay, what are the current scenarios? What is your current budget? What is your current situation? And then we are making up the whole, you can say, for doing the forecasting and giving the actual budget so they can implement it into the company. Same goes for the investment purpose as well. Investors looking for the…
Andrew o’Flaherty: Yeah, yeah.
Sadaf Abbas: So what, do you think that investors and startups, when they come into the one team, they are looking for the forecast. So here, now we are, then we are helping them out. Okay, this is your current situation. And giving you the forecast ability with the help of the current scenarios. Yes, perfect. So I love your work Andrew, believe me, and it will help more startups as well. So moving forward. What was it like moving from a small equity research platform as an analyst to large investment banks like RBC and Credit Suisse? So what is your experience over there as well?
Andrew o’Flaherty: So I’ve not got any kind of, you know, really had any family or friends historically in investing. So it’s quite a strange and intimidating world to go into. You know, when you go into the towers in Canary Wharf and you know, the big skyscrapers in London and you know, you read and watch movies about, about investing and you know, it’s terrifying. Hedge fund managers, etc., etc. So it was all, in a sense new to me, I think what, in what was interesting going to a large organization in particular and a large investment bank, as you say, such as an RBC or Credit Suisse, was the different risk profiles and approaches of one analyst or one investor from another.
So I’ll give you an example. When I went into investing, as I say, I’d been reading Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Mohnish Pabrai, these kind of very traditional long term value investors who in a sense have become the investment orthodoxy, but certainly had a specific way of thinking about markets. And what was interesting to me was that I could walk into a room with an analyst or fund manager who spent 30 years covering ten stocks but had no interest in investing in those personally. They’d be happy to collect a salary every day, talk about the companies all day on the phone to investors, but never necessarily invest.
And sometimes that’s completely client reasons, the bank doesn’t, doesn’t want you to invest in companies you’re recommending, etcetera. But I found that fascinating. And then on the other end of the spectrum, you’d have in another meeting an investor who would invest 50% or more of their net worth in one stock at a given point of time.
So throwing all the literature about diversification out of the window because they had such high conviction and a certain risk tolerance or tolerance for volatility. So that was fascinating to me, that spectrum, that two individuals would say, yes, I’m an investor, I’m an analyst, but their approach and their risk tolerance was entirely different to me. I’d probably say maybe not 50% of net worth in one stock, but I think I’m definitely towards that end of a more concentrated, high conviction style of investing.
And as you’ll know with your clients, they are essentially when they start their own businesses, investing 100% in many cases of their net worth in one idea, which is the company they own. So in that sense that type of concentration, risk, appetite, that startup culture is very normal but there are people in the investment world who would look at that with So it really is a broad church and that was probably a key learning for me going into some of those faces.
Sadaf Abbas: I would like to add here that I am also a financial consultant in my family. Just one, my whole family. Either they are engineers, or they are doctors and they are very scared. What are you doing Sadaf in your life?
Andrew o’Flaherty: No, exactly. It’s funny you say that. My mom always says to me because I’m always straight, she’s a lawyer, a family lawyer by training and whenever I have a good trade I’ll, I call her up and say oh, I made this amount of money, they stocked up 20%. She’s like half of. But what happens now? Did you sell it and do you leave it? And she’s always like, I think it’s gambling. But yeah, it’s quite a strange thing explaining to family members what you do for your family.
Sadaf Abbas: Yeah you’re just like a black sheep in your family and people don’t know what you are doing but you can’t try to explain, explain it very well because you are very good in numbers and we can easily predict the numbers and believe me, I’m not, I’m not happy to write anything but I’m very happy to write any financial analysis re report because I know what I’m doing, you know, so this is, this is the things I think it happens when you are just only one in your family who is a different domain and you are in a different, the whole family is in the same domain. My second question is that Andrew, that you mentioned that you’re currently building your own investment research business and can you share more about this transition and your vision of the future?
Andrew o’Flaherty: Yeah, absolutely. So as I mentioned to you, head of the school, we actually launched the website yesterday. It’s been a busy three month process of so many things from a professional sense, but we basically started business in February. So the business is called Fighting Financials Limited. We’re based in the, domiciled in the UK. In the last month we’ve obtained our regulatory approvals from the Financial Conduct Authority. So that’s a big deal. That means we’re effectively authorized to give regulated investment advice. So that’s great. So that allows us to take on institutional clients. But as I say the business is called fighting financials.
You can visit us at fightingfinancial.com online. And it’s a very simple business. The mission of the business is to be the partner of choice for the professional financial services investor. So what we do is provide an online platform primarily of interesting, high conviction, differentiated investment ideas. It’s split across equities and credit. The core focus, though, is financial. So for example, if you become a subscriber or client, you’ll go into the portal, log on, pick up the phone and have a call with me and the rest of the team, and it will be buy Barclays shares, sell HSBC 81 credit, for example. Interestingly, about 70% of the ideas on the platform today have basically one or zero in terms of broker coverage.
So we’re really, it’s not necessarily, you know, we have a few of the big name stocks that we really like that know five analysts would cover, but it really is looking for these interesting pockets in the market that most people just wouldn’t look at. Or given that it’s financial services, a lot of people would be afraid or intimidated by it. So that’s it. That’s what the platform is researching for now. But really the strand is helping investors to navigate the investment landscape with a particular focus on financial services.
Sadaf Abbas: It’s really nice to know about your venture, and I would like to say if you require any kind of, you can say help or assistance from me and for my team, and we will be ready for you. So best of luck for you, for your startup. And now, how has becoming a new dad influenced your professional life and priorities? This is a very tough question.
Andrew o’Flaherty: Yeah, it’s just been insane. I mean, it’s a blessing for sure. So my son Max is about five and a half months now. The funny thing is, a lot of people said to me, in kind of going out and trying to build something on my own in terms of fighting financials, a number of people are, oh, that’s risky. Having a newborn. This is so risky.
Sadaf Abbas: Believe me, this is so risky. You are a new dad, you are having a new,
Andrew o’Flaherty: So I disagree. So my view, and a few people said this to me. So my view is in five years time, when he’s five, and God forbid he has some siblings and there are school fees to pay or activities or all that stuff. And I’m five years older and five years more tired, I think it will be so much more risky five years from now to pursue an entrepreneurial venture. So for me, in a strange way, the knowledge of my son on his way towards the end of last year was actually a huge motivator for me. And the final thing is I want to be that role model that five years today, daddy pursued his ambitions and his goals and something he believed in. So for me, he was actually part of the motivation to take this.
This route and do something more entrepreneurial. But to your question, it’s a lot of fun. I don’t know if you have kids. I highly recommend it. Ultimately, family is what matters. So it’s been a lot of fun. It’s a little bit exhausting. My partner is the essential component in allowing him to kind of have a good life and have a good time. But he had a great time. He’s traveled a lot. We’ve been back and forth to France a few times. Probably hear him screaming in the background. But, yeah, it brings a smile to my face, and it’s a huge motivation. So, yeah, we feel blessed and we try to have a lot of fun with parenthood.
Sadaf Abbas: I’m having three kids and you, and the new one is just one years old and the older one is ten years old. So, you know, there is a huge gap between a 10 year old and a one year baby. So, yes, this is a roller coaster. Life changing. The second one is eight years old, baby girl Rebecca. So, basically, kids are giving you a space to give you a break from your work. And we are so much indulged in it. Our work is very constantly time consuming and time taking because our analysis is so much important for the third parties, like our clients.
We are so much indulged in our work. But our kids are giving us a break. Okay, let’s come back to life again rather than just do the whole work. And financial analysts like you and me, we are very introverted. So, we don’t have a very huge social network. We. We are very into nature by nature. It is our nature because of our work situation. So this is the thing. Best of luck, for being a new dad.
Andrew o’Flaherty: And my best wishes, good luck to you and being a third time mom with a little army to martial about.
Sadaf Abbas: Thank you. Thank you so much. And let’s back to the next question. What interesting trends are you currently seeing within markets, particularly FIG and FINS? And what advice do you think you are giving to your clients in this specific area?
Andrew o’Flaherty: Great question. So, the financials market is really exciting at the moment. I’m finding a lot to do. As I say, a lot of the things that we’re looking at, at fighting financials, are a little bit quirky, a little bit niche, but sufficiently liquid, and we see attractive return opportunities for little or appropriate risk. So in terms of separating the kind of the market out, I think higher level, a lot of the kind of high level views are on the platform.
So I encourage you and your listeners to go over and kind of see high level views which are all effectively free. But what I say in the portfolio today, or nine or ten active recommendations, currently, the credit ideas are the most, I think the most compelling. So we have three to four active credit recommendations. Fixed income debt. So in a sense, low risk, where we can get returns of about 12, 13 percent on average in sterling for a loan to value, if you like, of sub 30%.
What I mean by that is you’re being paid 11 or 12% a year in terms of return profile, and you are covered 4 to 5 times by the assets or the value of the business. So, you know, for us, that’s a really exciting and interesting risk. It is a risk that is liquid. It’s a risk that a lot of investors are not looking at, whether it’s the, the structure of the investment is a slightly quirky, slightly intimidating, or the security instrument is not necessarily traditional.
But we also have a few of those in really traditional liquid, 300-400 million bond investments, where investors are just analyzing it in the wrong way or confusing the credit story in a given situation from the equity story. So credit is really interesting, equity is good, but I think equity markets certainly, and financial services are quite highly valued. It’s hard to see an obvious catalyst.
So we have about three recommendations on the equity side, on the long side, and it’s really growth at reasonable prices. It’s those financial services with some sort of brand value or network effect. That means that like most, unlike most banks, they’re not commodities. If you walk into HSBC, I think, or if I walk into HSBC and they offer me a loan at 4% and Barclays offers me a loan at 3.99%, I’m going with Barclays. These are commoditized products. So on the XP side, what we found in the portfolio is built for some of those financials that have that brand status, that you use those brands and have a loyalty to them. And from an investment perspective, that means pricing power, that means long term compounding.
Andrew o’Flaherty: So those are kind of what we’re seeing now in terms of opportunities. I think the one that’s still difficult, particularly in a UK and European context, is short. We will be long, 70% in the portfolio, 30% net short. But individual shorts are difficult because a lot of the broken business models are cheap already and we’re seeing a lot of takeover activity in the UK. There was an offer for Hargreaves Lansdown the other day that I think was rejected. A lot of people were short. The stock was up 20%. That’s a painful situation to be in.
So I think shorts are the one where we’re having to be really careful and thoughtful and creative. But overall credit is really interesting, a really great opportunity there to get double digit returns. Equity is going to be volatile, but we’re finding things to do. So it’s just about cracking on. We’re 9 to 10 in the portfolio today. Over the next few months we’ll go to between 12 and 15 active recommendations and that’ll be it. Then it will just be improving the portfolio over time, getting to know what clients are investing in as well, and really targeting those kind of mid teens type of returns across the X and credit portfolio
Sadaf Abbas: Before going for the investment as a financial analyst , you also do the client Persona analysis. Right. What is the client Persona? Either they are going for the high volt mortality or they are going for the long term investment. Or the short term means. There are several case scenarios. We need to look into it and then come up with the solution.
Okay, which kind of portfolio? Which we best suit according to the client’s needs? Yes, but according to the new situation in the new market after the AI integrations, I believe that the investors are looking more into the less risk factors and going for the long term investment rather than short term investment. Now this is the current scenario and my last question is, is there anything else you would like to share with our listeners about your journey or future plan and tell more about your platform, how they can easily subscribe, what is the minimum price range for the subscription and why it is beneficial?
Andrew o’Flaherty: Yeah, no, absolutely. So investors can and your listeners can and viewers can go to fightingfinancials.com to see the website. We basically have two offers, so for now it’s an early bird offer. So for the annual subscription it’s 5000. That gives you online access to all of the research, any models we build, et cetera. So I suppose we think of that as a high net worth professional investor product. And then on the early bird we’re offering that for online only and then the full service is essentially all of that.
So all of the online access, all of the access to the research and research archive and obviously any future ideas we come up with, but also access to myself and the team. So being able to pick up the phone and have a call or a video conversation like this so we can really dig deep into an investment opportunity. And currently that’s 10,000 for the year in sterling on an early bird basis.
So we’re effectively saying to the first few who come to join us on this journey, we’ll offer that kind of preferential, preferential rate. But even for those who aren’t in that position at the moment, you know, we do offer quite a lot of free materials and public articles on the website where we give a bit of that higher level view into what we think is interesting and how we think investors, whether individual investors or institutions, should think about the market.
So hopefully there’s something for everyone on the platform. But yeah, Fightingfinancials.com and you know, in terms of the outlook, we’re excited. We think there’s a lot to do. The world continues to be uncertain, and continues to be exciting. And for us it’s just about, you know, being that partner of choice to investors and helping them navigate through that uncertainty. And if we can do so and have a little bit of fun in the process, then all the better. Better.
Sadaf Abbas: Thank you so much. Let’s wrap up the whole podcast and lately it’s a very insightful conversation with you regarding the investment field and for the investors and startups and your expertise in the investment landscape. I hope that you will have a very good venture regarding the fighting financials.
Andrew o’Flaherty: Really appreciate it.