AIM for Growth

A stock that I have owned for the last few years is banking conglomerate HSBC, which operates in 67 countries worldwide with Asia its largest market accounting for 45% of total revenue. The bank has over $2,500 billion assets under management globally and is the seventh largest in the world, generating reported revenue in 2018 at $53 million. The bank also delivers a strong yield of 6% that provides a good source of income generation for an investor’s portfolio.  ASIA As mentioned, the business generates 45% of total revenue from Asia, providing geographical diversification for investors versus UK-focused FTSE banks such as Barclays and Lloyds. Due to the global presence of the bank, the stock offers defensive qualities to investors. Positive economic growth is also occurring in the Asia Pacific region with disposable income rising which should relate to people having more funds available to invest or save, resulting in an increase in demand for banking and investment services. A

The growing emergence of digital platforms has seen the rise of companies such as Alphabet (Google), Uber and Deliveroo grow to global dominance. These companies are becoming ever prominent in society, highlighted by how ordinary terms have been replaced by brand equivalents such as to search the web is now ‘to Google it’ and ordering takeaway is now ‘I’ll get a Deliveroo’. These companies are disrupting the global economic market through technology-driven innovation, in which investment opportunities are rife. In this blog I look at the founding concepts of these companies through Srnicek’s work on platform capitalism and how this has presented investment opportunities within the different types of platforms.  PLATFORMS All companies mentioned are built on digital platforms, which monopolise and utilise data. For example, Google uses vast data amassed from Internet users and analyses it to produce highly segmented audiences that are more valuable to advertisers. As such, Google