Keynote Q&A Session

Jean-Marie Eveillard presented his in-depth investment thesis on Keynote Q&A Session at Asian Investing Summit 2014.

Some quotables from the Q&A session:

• “There is a reason for caution, [but] at the same time…in spite of the fact that markets have gone up considerably over the past five years…there is no major market I can think of where there are not at least some investment opportunities.”
• “Apropos the South Korean stock market, Buffett is right, it’s one of the markets that still provides considerable opportunities…I like the idea of Korean preferred stocks, in particular.”
• “Tokyo [stock market] today, yes it’s up a lot, but…it’s down more than 50% from where it was 25 years ago…so, it’s still a market that’s deeply depressed.”
• “From a very long term point of view, India would have my preference over China.”
• “Over the past few weeks, the Russian stocks went down so much, and the ruble had come down so much that, hey, there is a price for everything! So, maybe there is merit to owning a few Russian stocks today.”
• “When I look back at the past half century, I was helped more by what I did not own than what I did own: I owned nothing in Japan in the late 1980s. I owned nothing in the technology, media and telecom stocks in the late 1990s. I owned nothing in financial stocks at the beginning of this century.”
• “Bitcoin is a joke, and not a very good joke. While gold is real, it’s been money for a couple of thousand years. Although Bitcoin may be an indication that a number of people are not very happy with the current system.”

About the instructor:

Jean-Marie Eveillard was born in Poitiers in 1940 and attended the École des Hautes Études Commerciales before entering the world of finance in 1962 with a position at the Société Générale. In 1970, two years after he relocated to the United States, Eveillard took a position with SoGen International Fund as an analyst, becoming portfolio manager of the SoGen International Fund (as of 2000, First Eagle Global) in 1978. He remained in the position, managing the First Eagle Global, Oversease, Gold, and U.S. Value Funds, until December 31, 2004, during which time he had become — according to Fortune magazine — “one of Wall Street’s best value investors”. In 2001, Eveillard was honored as Morningstar’s International’s “Stock Manager of the Year. In 2003, Morningstar bestowed on Eveillard a “Fund Manager Lifetime Achievement Award”, created to recognize “mutual fund managers who throughout their careers have delivered outstanding long-term performance, aligned their interests with shareholders, demonstrated the courage to differ from consensus, and shown the ability to adapt to changes in the industry.” Eveillard transitioned to the role of Senior Adviser to First Eagle Funds in March 2009, a position he also held from January 2005 to March 2007. In 2009, Eveillard was a finalist for the Morningstar “fund manager of the decade award for non-U.S. stocks.” In addition to his role as senior adviser, Eveillard continues to be a member of First Eagle Funds’ Board of Trustees and a Senior Vice President of First Eagle Investment Management, LLC.