Queen Elizabeth II is probably the richest woman in Britain but is not in the top 20 list of the world’s richest women.
Still, she’s not short of a bob or two and reportedly has a personal investment portfolio that has probably done all right since she became the monarch on 2 June 1952.
What companies might conceivably have been in her portfolio throughout her reign?
It’s a tricky question to answer, partly because although there are plenty of companies in existence today that were around in 1952, not all of them would have been publicly listed at the time.
Ancient companies that would not have been in the 1952 portfolio
Among the long-lasting companies that went public after Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne are:
- Ashtead Group PLC (LSE:AHT) (formed 1947, listed 1986)
- Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC) (listed 1953)
- British American Tobacco PLC (LSE:BATS) (floated in 1962)
- Bunzl PLC (LSE:BNZL) (founded 1940, listed 1957)
- Croda International PLC (LSE:CRDA) (established 1940, listed 1957)
- Halma PLC (LSE:HLMA) (formed in 1894 as The Nahalma Tea Estate Company, listed in 1981)
- Man Group PLC (LSE:EMG) (founded 1783, listed 1994)
- Prudential PLC (LSE:PRU) (formed 1848; listed 1978)
- Pearson PLC (LSE:PSON) (established 1844, listed 1969)
- Rentokil Initial PLC (LSE:RTO) (formed 1925, listed 1969)
- J Sainsbury PLC (LSE:SBRY) (established 1869, listed 1973)
- ABRDN (incorporating Standard Life, which formed in 1825 and demutualised in 2006)
So, technically none of those stalwarts would be in QEII’s coronation portfolio.
Then there are some stocks that were around in 1952 that are still available in one form or another. Included in this list would be: Allied Breweries, Grand Metropolitan and Guinness, bits of which have ended up in Diageo PLC (LSE:DGE); Glaxo and Beecham (GSK PLC), Midland Bank (HBSC Holdings PLC); National Provincial Bank (NatWest Bank PLC); Patons & Baldwins (Coats PLC), Bass (Intercontinental Hotels Group PLC); Reckitt & Colman (Reckitt Benckiser PLC); Reed International (RELX PLC).
Others have just changed their names, e.g. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (BP PLC), Willson Lathes (Meggitt Holdings PLC); J Hepworth & Son (Next PLC).
Other stalwarts have fallen into public ownership, emerged from it and in some cases gone back into it; try untangling the history of Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.) or British Aerospace some time.
The enduring dozen
Beyond those, here is a selection of familiar names from 1952 that are still major stock market entities today:
Alliance Trust PLC (LSE:ATST), Balfour Beatty plc (LSE:BBY), British American Tobacco PLC (LSE:BATS), British Land PLC, Coats Group PLC (LSE:COA), Imperial Brands PLC (LSE:IMB), Land Securities PLC, Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY), Marks & Spencer Group PLC, Tate Lyle, Tesco PLC and Unilever PLC (LSE:ULVR).
Some once familiar names that have fallen by the wayside include Alfred Herbert, Associated Portland Cement, Boots, Bowater, Cadbury Schweppes, Cavenham Foods, Courtaulds, Distillers, Dunlop, EMI, GEC, Guest Keen Nettlefold (GKN), Harrods, Imperial Chemical Industries, Lancashire Cotton, Leyland Motors, London Brick, Murex, Morris Motors, Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), Pinchin Johnson, Spillers, Swan Hunter, Vickers, Watney Combe & Reid, William Cory, Woolworth.
Tom Stevenson, the investment director for personal investing at Fidelity International, has come up with his own “Platinum Investments” list, comprising ten shares that have “stood the test of time with the Queen”.
His list consists of:
- Royal Mail – founded in 1516
- WH Smith – founded in 1792
- Burberry – founded in 1856
- Sainsbury’s – founded in 1869
- Marks & Spencer – founded in 1884
- Tate & Lyle – founded in 1885
- Rolls Royce – founded in 1904
- Aston Martin – founded in 1913
- Unilever – founded in 1927
- Greggs – founded in 1939/ first store opened in 1951
“The first thing that jumps out is that nearly all of these companies have powerful brand names. In part, that’s just a reflection of the time they’ve been a part of our lives but it also suggests that they are companies that we have come to have a real affinity with. It’s hard to imagine them not being there,” Stevenson said.
I don’t know about you but the first thing that jumped out for me was the inclusion of Aston Martin in the list – a disastrous stock market investment if ever there was one but let’s let Tom make his case.
“The second theme is the defensiveness of their businesses. They make or sell things that we cannot do without. No surprise that three of the ten are food retailers. Whatever the state of the economy, Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer and Greggs are well protected from the ups and downs of the business cycle,” Stevenson said.
Yes, Tom but what about Aston Martin?
“The rich are different, they say. For them, the ebb and flow of the economy is neither here nor there, so it is also not a surprise that luxury goods have been another key to corporate longevity. Burberry’s iconic trench coats are always in fashion and who wouldn’t want to emulate that other great British survivor, James Bond, in his trademark Aston Martin car?” Stevenson asks rhetorically.
When it comes to Aston Martin, I think I’d prefer a different sort of bond: premium bond.
Still, Stevenson has a point about the enduring appeal of a brand name, which makes the infamous abortive switch by Royal Mail PLC (LSE:RMG) to the meaningless name of Consignia a few years back even more baffling.
“The oldest company on our list is perhaps the one that is most at risk from the changes sweeping the latter years of the second Elizabethan age. Royal Mail now delivers more parcels than letters as almost none of us writes to each other anymore but we pretty much all do a growing proportion of our shopping online,” Stevenson opines.
That may be so but it is fair to say that Royal Mail is the only company the Queen has been able to put her stamp on.