MLN - September 2025 Quarter Newsletter

1
Marlin ended the September quarter with gross performance up +1.9%
and the adjusted NAV return was +1.2%. This compared with our global
benchmark S&P Large Mid Cap/S&P Small Cap Index (50% hedged to
NZD), which was up +10.2%.
Market Environment
Global share markets had a solid quarter (+7%), driven by easing
trade tensions, robust corporate earnings, optimism around artificial
intelligence (AI), and expectations of monetary policy easing.
The best example of this enthusiasm towards AI was the 30% rise in
one day in the Oracle share price during the quarter – OpenAI signed
a $300bn ($60bn per annum) contract with Oracle to house the
accelerated computer chips to train OpenAI’s AI models. For context,
OpenAI’s total revenue today is $15bn. And remember, the $60bn
annual operating cost OpenAI committed to is only one of its many
costs!
Portfolio performance lagged the benchmark significantly, primarily due
to our exposure to the healthcare sector. It is rare to see sentiment
so beaten down in a sector - healthcare has not been cheaper vs the
broader market in 25 years. This manifested in the last few days, with
our largest healthcare weighting, Danaher, bouncing almost 20% in
three days on the back of some “less bad” news for its’s pharmaceutical
customers on US drug pricing. We discuss the healthcare sector in
detail below.
Portfolio
Our overweight position in healthcare was a drag again in Q3, with
several of our large healthcare positions including Intuitive Surgical,
Dexcom and Boston Scientific amongst our worst performers.
Healthcare has been a strong performing sector over the long-term,
driven by an aging population and technological advances in how we
treat disease. Companies like Boston Scientific, which manufactures
a range of innovative medical devices has nearly tripled since we
added it to the portfolio in 2020. However, with government budgets
stretched post COVID, governments like the USA are looking to put
some pressure on rising healthcare costs. This has been most acutely
felt in the pharmaceutical sector, which has negatively impacted portfolio
companies like Danaher and Icon, who provide products and services
to these pharmaceutical companies.
In hindsight we have underappreciated how long some of these
headwinds would take to resolve and the severity of some of the
proposed changes; and that has hurt portfolio performance over the
last twelve months. While we anticipate that the eventual impact of
these changes will be manageable, companies do not like uncertainty.
Boards are unlikely to approve billion-dollar drug plants or trials without
clear visibility on drug pricing and tariffs. And this had led to consistent
underperformance from companies like Danaher and Icon. Recently, we
have seen some signs that end-customer demand is improving. When
sentiment shifts, stock prices can move fast as we saw with Icon, which
was up 40% over the course of three days during July.
While we have reduced our total exposure to healthcare, we are
maintaining an overweight position. Sentiment toward the sector is
near the lowest in decades, despite what we view as manageable
headwinds. Our healthcare portfolio companies are generally market
leaders in innovative and fast-growing markets, that are also playing
a role in managing overall healthcare costs, which at least partially
shields them from Government spending cuts. For example, Dexcom’s
continuous glucose monitors for diabetics have been proven to reduce
total costs to healthcare systems, such as reducing emergency
department visits by 30%; and RFK Jr, who is effectively the Minister for
Health in the US; believes widespread use of devices like CGMs will help
make Americans healthier.
Our top three performers for the quarter were all AI related. Alphabet
continues to prove the critics of its AI capabilities wrong, winning AI
cloud deals with Meta and Open AI; and is in discussions with Apple to
integrate Google Gemini into a revamped Siri. The continued demand
for AI compute requires increased investment in semiconductor
manufacturing capacity, in turn driving demand for ASML’s advanced
lithography tools used to develop these advanced chips. Tencent is
using AI to drive performance in its advertising and gaming businesses.
AI algorithms are improving the return on advertising spend for
advertisers on Tencent’s short-video product, driving 50% revenue
growth from short-video advertising in the quarter.
Alphabet and ASML have both dragged on portfolio performance over
the last 6-12 months, and we took the opportunity to add significant
weight to each these names during this period; and have benefitted
from the subsequent outperformance. While these recoveries in share
prices can take time to play out, this does highlight the benefit of also
playing offence when sentiment is negative, provided our investment
thesis has not changed.
On the opposite side of the fence was Gartner, a company that has
been deemed an AI-loser by the market. Gartner’s negative earnings
result in August elevated fears that AI is disrupting the research and
consulting industry, despite management’s commentary that it was
more macro-driven. We had reduced a third of our position coming into
results as we felt the AI risks had heightened. We now hold it at a very
small weight post the sell-off. While we acknowledge the AI risks, we
do think Gartner’s proprietary data and independence provides some
defence, and the business is not standing still, with Gartner recently
launching its own AI search product “AskGartner.”
We have also added to several of our positions outside of tech and
healthcare, opportunistically increasing our position size in Zoetis,
Hermes and Tradeweb, and adding a new company Old Dominion
to the portfolio. While the market is overly focused on near term
challenges for Zoetis’s Librela pain drug for dogs, we believe these
challenges will eventually be resolved, and the market is missing the
multi-year growth runway for Zoetis as it continues to launch innovative
new treatments for animals. We continued to add to our Hermes
position amongst weakness in the broader luxury market given key
brand health metrics like resale values remain stable, indicating the
brand’s MOAT is intact. We increased our Tradeweb position. The sell-
off in defensive companies, coupled with temporary concerns about
low-fee competitors taking market share from Tradeweb created the
opportunity. Tradeweb remains the best positioned electronic bond
trading platform and will benefit from the ongoing structural shift to
electronic trading.
¹
Share price premium to NAV (using the net asset value per share, after expenses, fees and tax, to four decimal places).
as at 30 September 2025
1 July 2025 – 30 September 2025
MLN NAVPREMIUM
1
$
0.940.5
%$
0.95
Share Price
QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER

PERFORMANCE
as at 30 September 2025
Disclaimer: The information in this newsletter has been prepared as at the date noted on the front page. The information has been prepared as a general summary of the matters covered only, and it is by necessity brief. The information
and opinions are based upon sources which are believed to be reliable, but Marlin Global Limited and its officers and directors make no representation as to its accuracy or completeness. The newsletter is not intended to constitute
professional or investment advice and should not be relied upon in making any investment decisions. Professional financial advice from a financial adviser should be taken before making an investment. To the extent that the newsletter
contains data relating to the historical performance of Marlin Global Limited or its portfolio companies, please note that fund performance can and will vary and that future results may have no correlation with results historically achieved.
Marlin Global Limited
Private Bag 93502, Takapuna, Auckland 0740, New Zealand
Phone: +64 9 484 0365
Email: enquire@marlin.co.nz | www.marlin.co.nz
Headquarters Company
%
Holding
China
Tencent Holdings4.0%
France
Hermes International4.5%
Ireland
Icon3.1%
United Kingdom
Greggs Plc2.1%
United States
Alphabet4.7%
Amazon.Com6.9%
ASML Holding NV4.0%
Boston Scientific2.5%

Costco Wholesale Corp1.5%
Danaher Corporation5.7%

Dexcom Inc4.4%
Edwards Lifesciences Corp.3.7%
Floor & Décor Holdings4.1%
Gartner Inc1.7%
Intuitive Surgical Inc5.7%
KKR & Co Inc1.1%
Mastercard5.9%
Meta Platforms Inc3.5%
Microsoft6.6%
MSCI Inc2.5%
Netflix2.0%
Nvidia Corp3.7%
Old Dominion Freight3.5%
salesforce.com3.1%
Tradeweb Markets Inc2.0%
Zoetis Inc4.5%
Equity Total97.0%
New Zealand dollar cash0.8%
Total foreign cash2.6%
Cash Total3.4%
Forward Foreign Exchange(0.4%)

TOTAL100.0%
PORTFOLIO HOLDINGS
SUMMARY
as at 30 September 2025
COMPANY NEWS
If you would like to receive future
newsletters electronically please email us
at enquire@marlin.co.nz
Dividend Paid 26 September 2025
A dividend of 1.88 cents per share was paid to Marlin
shareholders on 26 September 2025, under the quarterly
distribution policy. Interest in Marlin’s dividend reinvestment plan
(DRP) remains high with 38% of shareholders participating in the
plan. Shares issued to DRP participants are at a 3% discount to
market price. If you would like to participate in the DRP, please
contact our share registrar, Computershare on 09 488 8777.
3 Months
3 Years
(annualised)
5 Years
(annualised)
Company Performance
Total Shareholder Return+5.9%+5.6%+5.3%
Adjusted NAV Return +1.2%+11.3%+6.0%
Portfolio Performance
Gross Performance Return+1.9%+14.6%+8.7%
Benchmark Index¹+10.2%+19.6%+13.9%
1
Benchmark index : S&P Large Mid Cap/S&P Small Cap Index (hedged 50% to NZD)
Non-GAAP Financial Information
Marlin uses non-GAAP measures, including adjusted net asset value, adjusted NAV return, gross performance
return and total shareholder return. The rationale for using such non-GAAP measures is as follows:
»adjusted net asset value – the underlying value of the investment portfolio adjusted for capital
allocation decisions after expenses, fees and tax,
»adjusted NAV return – the percentage change in the adjusted NAV value,
»gross performance return – the Manager’s portfolio performance in terms of stock selection and
currency hedging before expenses, fees and tax, and
»total shareholder return – the return combines the share price performance, the warrant price
performance, the net value of converting any warrants into shares, and the dividends paid to
shareholders. It assumes all dividends are reinvested in the company’s dividend reinvestment plan,
and that shareholders exercise their warrants, (if they were in the money), at warrant expiry date.
All references to adjusted net asset value, adjusted NAV return, gross performance return and total shareholder
return in this newsletter are to such non-GAAP measures. The calculations applied to non-GAAP measures are
described in the Marlin Non-GAAP Financial Information Policy. A copy of the policy is available at
marlin.co.nz/about-marlin/marlin-policies.
SIGNIFICANT RETURNS IMPACTING
THE PORTFOLIO DURING THE
QUARTER IN LOCAL CURRENCY
ALPHABET
+38
%
TENCENT
HOLDINGS
+32
%
DEXCOM
-23
%
TRADEWEB
MARKET
-24
%
GARTNER
-35
%
Sam Dickie
Senior Portfolio Manager
Fisher Funds Management Ltd
15 October 2025
Portfolio additions and exits
We initiated a position in Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), which
is North America’s second largest less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier, a
segment where operators charge more than full-truckload peers due to
multi-customer handling and sorting. ODFL is regarded as the industry
benchmark, with on-time deliveries above 99%, damage claims of just
0.1%, and 15 consecutive #1 quality rankings from Mastio & Company.
Its culture of “Helping the World Keep Promises” has supported market
share gains and industry-leading margins. With the freight sector in
its longest recession in decades as COVID over-earning continues to
unwind, we began building a position.
We exited UnitedHealth Group during the quarter. The company was
one of our worst performers in the June quarter, as earnings were cut
50%, shaking investors’ confidence in this historically stable business.
We had trimmed our position size significantly into the result and
subsequently as we reviewed our investment thesis. Following a circa
40% increase in share price from the start of August, we exited our
position.