Lazard’s recipe for growing dividends with less volatility

**James Marlay** (0:05)
Today on The Rules of Investing podcast, I'm speaking with Aaron Binsted, Portfolio Manager and Analyst at Lazard Asset Management. We'll be discussing the disconnect between the economic backdrop and equity markets. We'll discuss defensive investing and some of the overlooked dividend opportunities on the ASX, and we'll also be touching on a way you can play the surging demand for electric vehicles on the Australian market. Stick around to the end, where I'll also be asking Aaron to nominate the one company he'd be happy to own if markets shut for five years. My name is James Marlay, and The Rules of Investing is brought to you by Livewire Markets.
Aaron, thanks very much for coming in. Great to catch up, and I'm looking forward to our chat today.

**Aaron Binsted** (0:49)
Thanks, James. Great to be here.

**James Marlay** (0:50)
Now, before we get into the really tough questions around the economic backdrop and markets and how they're behaving, an interesting story, you've only had one job. Straight out of university, I don't think you're even out of university and you ended up at Lazard Asset Management. Maybe give us the quick backdrop there.

**Aaron Binsted** (1:09)
Yeah, that's right, James. Well, I did have an illustrious career at a BP service station and pulling beers at a pub, so please don't leave those out of the bio. But that's right, I was actually just meant to do a summer internship in between my, I think, years two and three of university at the equities team, Australian equities team at Lazard. And I guess no one told me my internship had finished because, you know, 22 odd years, 23 odd years later, I'm still there. So I think I break the record for longest internship, but Fair Work Australia doesn't need to get involved because they did start paying me.
But yeah, no, still here.

**James Marlay** (1:51)
And there must have been something about the philosophy at Lazard that's really resonated with you. It's a value investing house, quite disciplined.
So that's obviously, I guess, by luck to a certain extent, but something that's stuck with you.

**Aaron Binsted** (2:04)
It's almost the default bio, investor bio these days. But like a lot of other people, I was reading Warren Buffett and Ben Graham books in late high school and university, which if you just had any illusions that I was a trendy person, those just went out the window.
But I had some connections in financial markets and basically said, look, this is the stuff I'm into, who should I talk to? And they said, oh, you should go and talk to the guys at Lazard. So basically, I wrote them a letter and said, this is who I am, this is what motivates me and I'm interested in. They said, oh, look, that's interesting enough. Come in and spend some time with us. And I was meant to be there for three months on an unpaid internship. And after a month, the guy said, actually, we want to back pay you for what you've done and stick around while you're at university and finish your degree. So I guess, you know, it did kind of gel together pretty quickly.

**James Marlay** (2:58)
Yeah, it's worked out well and great tenure. Well, let's get into what's going on in markets right now. Quick sort of recap on some numbers. The ASX 200 is back in the green for 2026, which is good for investors out there. It's up 14 and a half odd percent over the past 12 months, and I think people would be surprised by if they heard that number against the backdrop that we've got.
And I guess if we look at it, the market appears to be saying the worst is behind us. What's your assessment of how markets are responding to this backdrop where we still have effectively shots being fired?

**Aaron Binsted** (3:37)
Yeah, that's right. And I think the summary is correct, James. The market is looking through and just really simply, I think if we do get a resolution in the near term let's call it the next month or two, we probably can muddle through and look forward. Whereas if it's still, and just to make up a date, you know, in September and there's still things going on in the straight and disrupted flows, then I think that optimism may be a bit questionable.
But certainly for now people are, you know, looking through that.

**James Marlay** (4:06)
We might just dive in to some of the dynamics in the Australian market at the moment. We are one of the few countries in the midst of a rate tracking cycle, which I think caught quite a few people off guard with some hotter inflation than we're expecting. We've seen more recently the latest consumer confidence print was a real shocker.