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Try: AI strategy tariffs earnings guidance layoffs interest rates growth

Alex Crooke

Fund Manager, The Bankers Investment Trust; Portfolio Manager, Global Equity Income Team, Janus Henderson Investors, The Bankers Investment Trust

Search every verified Alex Crooke interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Alex Crooke, co-fund manager of The Bankers Investment Trust, has discussed the trust's performance and strategy in recent results updates. In the half-year results for the period ending April 2026, he reported a share price total return of 6.5%, outperforming the FTSE World Index's 5.5% rise, while the net asset value total return was 3.7%. He attributed performance to technology and energy sectors, noting a "generational shift of cash flow" from hyperscalers' AI capital expenditure to semiconductor companies. He also described completing a portfolio restructuring that removed regional sleeves in favor of a unified global portfolio of around 70 high-conviction holdings. In the full-year results for 2025, he highlighted a 22.8% share price return and a 59th consecutive year of dividend growth, while noting that underperformance relative to the benchmark occurred in November 2024 following the US election. Crooke has also expressed a positive outlook for markets, describing the AI-driven environment as "a boom not a bubble" and stating that valuations are "not stretched." He has discussed increasing the trust's US exposure to around 60-65% of the portfolio, while maintaining overweight positions in financials and technology. He has also commented on the impact of higher interest rates, describing a "major reset" in the cost of capital that he expects to shape investment returns over the next several years.

Recent appearances

Notable quotes

“I do think I is is leading to great opportunities for us. It's more I think in efficiency and productivity gains. And therefore I still think we're in a mid cycle recovery in markets. I know markets are on all time highs but I still think there's lots of opportunity. Investment spending is actually accelerating in a number of areas. That's always led to better earnings growth over time. And valuations are not stretch”

“We've had the bar chart in the middle there. You see over this U.S. power demand in the last 20 25 years really very static. It's grown 9 percent over basically 20 years. And that's because of efficiency. LED lights we're just using less for more. But you can see the blue lines are showing the next 20 years. We're expecting very strong growth 38 percent growth in power consumption and that's electrification. It's mov”

“In terms of our outlook for 2026, we are actually quite positive on markets, despite a second strong year in 2025 for share prices. I think some of the key drivers will be the lifting of uncertainty. So 2025 did see a lot of corporates telling us that we are struggling a little bit with the certainty around tariffs, around economic growth. And I think some of those are going to lift in 2026 and allow companies to inv”

“The highlight of the year was the share price was up 22.8% ahead of the benchmark up 21.0%. The net asset value was up 18.1% so a little behind the benchmark. Really all that return that we lost was in November of 2024, really post the US election when we held relatively few of the sort of stocks that were very pro-Republican and Trump's policies. But since the beginning of 2025, the net asset value has broadly been ”

“I think we're in a boom not a bubble. Bubbles are characterized by excessive leverage, excessive IPOs at ridiculous prices, and these sort of elements now, until the AI boom becomes heavily leveraged and debt funded, which I just you know it will do one day but it isn't at the moment. So I think at the moment very manageable, managing it within their cash flow, and these businesses are very profitable, lower ratings ”

“We're marginally overweight, so we are positive on the UK. Let's be clear about that. But obviously 6% is a lot smaller than we've historically had. I still think helping the UK stock market is tricky. I mean whether the government decide to do some active you know give it the benefit from investing UK equities of some form that would be lovely. Also helping institutions to invest more in the UK market would be helpf”

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