Mundy's Moments: Going off piste in search of spin-off profits

Over the years we have found the vast majority of our investment opportunities by focusing on stocks that have significantly underperformed.

However, every so often we go slightly off-piste and come across other unloved candidates.  For example, we often explore companies that have been spun off from much larger parents.  Unsurprisingly, as the world's largest market - and one not short of activist investors - the majority of spin-offs are found in the US.  However, a healthy number pop up in other markets. Just looking at the FTSE 350 index one can find, among others, Howdens Joinery (born out of MFI), Aggreko (from Christian Salvesen), AstraZeneca (from ICI), Britvic (from multiple ownership), Direct Line (which was a...