The Globe and Mail reports in its Monday, March 25, edition that Ken O'Kennedy is not making predictions about if or when interest rates will drop this year -- or by how much. The Globe's Brenda Bouw writes that instead, the Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel stockpicker prefers to focus on analyzing and understanding businesses he can own long term, regardless of the interest-rate environment. The fundamental buy-and-hold strategy has helped Dixon achieve double-digit returns in recent years. The Dixon Mitchell Total Equity Portfolio, with $1.5-billion in assets under management, has returned 16 per cent over the past year. Its three-year annualized return is 15.7 per cent, while its five-year annualized return is 14.2 per cent. The returns, as of Jan. 31, are gross of fees, which vary by the client and range between 0.8 and 1 per cent. The five top holdings in the portfolio are Visa (6.2 per cent), Dollarama (5.9 per cent), Alphabet (5.6 per cent), Berkshire-Hathaway (5.5 per cent) and Alimentation Couche-Tard (5 per cent). Mr. O'Kennedy says he recently added Kinaxis, the Canadian supply-chain management software company, to the Total Equity Portfolio in January and February.