Here’s what you need to know today

• Renters in Victoria should expect more price rises, as the number of active rental properties fell a little over 3%, from 676,400 to 654,700. Less rentals on the market with demand growing from population growth is expected to push prices higher, although that hasn’t come through in the data yet. Victoria has only ever recorded two quarters of falls in the number of rental properties, both have happened in 2024. (ABC)
  
  

• In a Senate hearing on Friday, Australian supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths both put the blame at the feet of their suppliers for an 18% rise in the cost of groceries over the past 3 years. Woolworths executive Paul Harker said they’d had supplier requests to raise the price of more than 12,500 items by more than 10%. Coles said they had received double the number of supplier cost-increase requests for packaged goods in 2022-23 compared to 2021-22. (AFR)
  
  

• There are signs that India’s rapid economic growth is losing momentum. Annual GDP growth eased from 7.8% in April to 6.7% in June. Now more recent data suggests the slowdown has continued: industrial output was below expectations, car sales fell 19% year-on-year and growth in GST tax receipts fell to its lowest level in more than three years. (Economist)
  
  

• Investors were unimpressed with Tesla’s event unveiling their ‘cybercab’ - a fully automated robotaxi. The unveiling relied heavily on performance and Tesla’s share price fell 9%. However, Tesla hope to start selling cybercabs in 2026 for less than US$30,000, which would be an amazing feat if it can be achieved. (Guardian)
  
  

• Troubled aerospace giant Boeing has announced it is laying off 10% of its workforce as it manages ongoing safety issues and a strike by 33,000 workers. Boeing is already in US$60 billion debt and is reported to be losing $50 million a day from this ongoing strike. (ABC)
  
  

• Boeing isn’t the only aerospace player facing challenges. British Airways announced it would be cancelling hundreds of long-haul flights because of delays in receiving engines and parts from Rolls-Royce. (Reuters)
  
  

• To round out the aerospace tough news, Airbus announced it delivered just 50 commercial planes in September, its second consecutive month where deliveries were down year-on-year. (Quartz)

What the…?

KIIS FM’s $200 million gamble on Sydney radio royalty Kyle & Jackie O may not be paying off. As part of their new radio deal, Kyle and Jackie O are now broadcast in Melbourne for the first time. Well, 6 months in and KIIS have reportedly lost 140,000 listeners year-on-year in Melbourne, despite a $2 million advertising push for the show.

What’s more, a push to get advertisers to boycott Kyle & Jackie O is gaining traction with 196 companies reportedly agreeing to pull advertising. (AFR)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

Seth Klarman on What Makes a Value Investor and Committing ‘Sacrilege’ in New Edition of ‘Security Analysis’

Seth Klarman is one of the greatest investors of his generation. Starting his fund Baupost Group in 1982 with $27 million he has grown his fund at 20% a year for the past 42 years and today manages more than $30 billion. He is also the author of one of our favourite investing books, the often-out of stock ‘Margin of Safety’.

Klarman recently contributed to a new edition of Benjamin Graham’s investment classic ‘Security Analysis’ and in this article discussed how he believes we should update our thinking on some of Graham’s investing principles, something that is considered “sacrilege” in parts of the investment community.

The conversation summarised in this article demonstrates the changing nature of value investing. Benjamin Graham is considered the father of value investing and his books were the guide for generations of value investors (including Warren Buffett in his early days). Today, Klarman is seen as a modern-day value investor and the ways that Klarman’s approach differ to Graham’s illustrate how the markets have changed in the almost-100 years since Security Analysis was first published in 1934.

If you want to learn more about Seth Klarman, and discover what is in his portfolio, listen to today’s episode of Equity Mates Investing podcast (Apple | Spotify) where we unpack what the legendary investor owns today.

Today’s sponsor is Franklin Templeton

For global equity investors, “value” has been out of favour for a long time. At Brandywine Global, a Franklin Templeton company, we believe value will have its day. Particularly given the backdrop in the US – expensive valuations, uncertain election outcomes and sustaining tech industry hype. We take a consistent yet adaptive value approach, as value opportunities take many forms.

Now is a great time to have the flexibility to look across the globe with a strategy that is designed to outpace the broad market, while maintaining consistent exposure to value opportunities.

The Brandywine Global Opportunistic Equity strategy has an investment process that seeks “multiple ways to win” through macro, market assessment and stock selection, which has generated highly differentiated outcomes relative to peers.

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