As the need grows to clean our energy grids and treat cancers the legendary businessman is looking at how nuclear technologies can offer solutions and investment upside
Michael Lee-Chin has built his businesses and his reputation on a core framework called the “three Ps.” The billionaire businessman, philanthropist, and executive chairman of Portland Investment Counsel Inc. (“Portland”) argues that every successful individual, business, and investor has followed that framework. The three Ps stand for predict, plan, and persevere. In the 1980s he predicted the need for baby boomers to prepare for their retirement, he made a plan to invest in mutual fund companies, and he persevered with that plan, building a fortune in the process. Today, his predictions are pointed at two of mankind’s greatest looming catastrophes: climate change and cancer.
Lee-Chin explained that there are potential solutions to both of these crises to be found in the nuclear field. Climate change, he notes, demands a clean grid with reliable sources of energy. Nuclear power, he argues, is the only viable, scalable solution to replace the core role now played by fossil fuels. Radioisotope th1erapy harnesses radioactive materials to attack cancer cells directly and has the potential to drastically change the prognosis for many cancer patients.
With a view to the prospects these technologies have, Lee-Chin has made a plan. He has created two investment vehicles, the Portland Life Sciences Alternative Fund and the Portland Replacement of Fossil Fuels Alternative Fund. He outlined how these funds were constructed and what role they could play in client portfolios as advisors look to capitalize on his predictions.
“If you're thinking about creating wealth, you find big problems and you solve them,” Lee-Chin says. “In so doing, you're going to achieve three things. Number one, you're going to differentiate yourself because not too many people want to solve big problems. Number two, you're going to augment your reputation. And number three, you're really addressing issues that are relevant, not only to clients but to society. What could be a higher calling?”
Both funds hold a selection of public names directly exposed to the themes of nuclear energy and radioisotope treatment of cancer. In addition to the two funds mentioned, Portland made investments in private companies, which positioned it to better understand and identify similar opportunities in public equity markets. A broad scope and understanding of each field is important because, while utility names might offer some exposure to nuclear and healthcare names may come with some exposure to radioisotopes, they come with a myriad of additional influences.
The other reason to hold privates, Lee-Chin explains, is to position Portland as an owner-operator. He notes the example of one Munich-based company called ITM Isotopes Technologies Munich SE, a key supplier to Novartis AG for their radiotherapeutic cancer drug. Through their investment Lee-Chin sits on the board of that company and therefore can access many of the other core names, technologies, and opportunity sets in this industry. By putting skin in the game, as it were, Portland is better informed about its future investments in this theme.
Dragos Berbecel explains that he saw a similar need for private access in the nuclear energy space. Berbecel is a portfolio manager at Portland Investment Counsel and co-lead on these funds with Lee- Chin.
“We were somewhat surprised by the paucity of investment options that fit the industry as we saw it. There was a piecemeal selection of miners and uranium utilities, while other funds might have been prompted to broaden their scope to more of a ‘sustainable energy’ focus by adding wind and solar,” Berbecel says. “We didn’t feel like what was out there properly encapsulated the promise of nuclear, so we created this fund to be well differentiated, and we’re pleased to see the results starting to show.”
Nuclear energy has recently experienced a strong tailwind from the AI theme. Because of the high energy demand placed on grids by AI, there has been a growing demand for cheap, clean, reliable energy. Nuclear power has become one of the core solutions for that demand, and the Portland fund has been buoyed as a result.
While Lee-Chin welcomes that development, he characterizes it as only an “incremental lift” in the far wider and long-term theme of a global shift towards carbon neutrality. There continues to be a need for a ‘hub and spoke’ model of energy production, he says, and nuclear power is one of the only sources to form the hub as it is more reliable than solar and wind without generating emissions. That long-term trend is the core of Lee-Chin’s focus, with wins from momentary themes like AI taken as part of that wider shift.
As advisors look to participate in these themes, Lee-Chin says that the core of their communication should be around the value of these technologies to mankind, rather than the specific financial instruments used to access them.
“These are the easiest concepts to communicate, because both concepts affect every human being,” Lee-Chin says. “You can see these as strong long-term growth areas. Intuitively you know it and intellectually you can see it. The question then is how do you participate in that growth area?”
