Update from the PM – April 2026

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– Andrew Macken and the Montaka Team

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It’s been an uncomfortable month of intense geopolitical conflict, which has sent oil prices skyrocketing and many stock prices downwards.

All S&P 500 sectors were down in March, with Energy the only exception – for obvious reasons. Similarly, most stocks in Montaka’s portfolio fell during the month, though pleasingly, BAE Systems, KKR, Blackstone, and Unity Software bucked the trend.

Short-term volatility in stock prices is never pleasant. But the good news is that we believe this volatility is creating significant investment opportunities for Montaka.

This becomes clear when we perform detailed bottom-up analysis of several competitively advantaged businesses and we find their earnings power remains strong. Yet after recent sharp declines, those earnings can now be acquired at meaningfully cheaper prices.

Said another way: competitive advantages are on sale today.

In Montaka’s Quarterly Letter, we go deeper: examining how geopolitics and AI are reshaping the investment landscape, unpacking Montaka’s recent performance, and explaining why we see this moment as a genuine opportunity for long-term investors.

In Price vs Value: The Best Companies in the World Are on Sale, we show that the businesses owned by Montaka continue to perform very well fundamentally; it’s just their valuation multiples have significantly derated in recent months. This gap between price and fundamentals is exactly what Montaka is positioned to exploit.

One stock that held its ground in March – due to the grim situation in the Middle East –  is UK-based defence contractor BAE Systems. Montaka invested in BAE earlier in the year following Trump’s attempted takeover of Greenland. In The rearmament supercycle: Why Montaka invested in BAE Systems, Tim outlines why we see opportunity in the company as defence budgets around the world accelerate and diversify away from US vendors.

In this month’s Spotlight Series podcast, Montaka’s Chief of Staff, Jessica Dharmasiri, takes the reins and interviews Andy about Montaka’s latest analysis of security and safety risks that come with AI agents. They explore how today’s large language models (LLMs) can display deceptive behavior, how they can be manipulated by others, and how their training data is vulnerable to poisoning.

This is essential listening for any business leader trying to figure out how to harness AI’s potential, while maintaining robust safety and security standards.

 

– The Montaka Team

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Podcast: Join the Montaka Global Investments team on Spotify as we share real-time examples and investing tips that govern our stockpicks. Click below to listen. Alternatively, click on this link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/montaka

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