We have been fortunate to enjoy conversations with several highly thoughtful investors recently, and I am pleased to bring you their wisdom and insights in this issue. MOI Global members truly do get to build their “latticework of mental models” and cumulate their knowledge of investing. The experience of Warren Buffett—perhaps the ultimate “learning machine” in the arena of business—shows that investors can get better over time, especially if they prioritize the learning process over short-term outcomes.
We recently interviewed highly regarded Spanish investor Iván Martín of Magallanes Value Investors about his philosophy. Iván shares insights into contrarian investing, what he looks for in CEOs, and how Spanish companies stack up in terms of competitiveness on a global scale, among other topics. Iván names one of the CEOs he admires most, shares an investment case study, and recommends two books for honing one’s contrarian investment approach.
We also recently interviewed New York-based value investor Scott Miller. He is the founder of Greenhaven Road Capital, an investment partnership that looks for investments “off the beaten path”. Scott participated in this year’s Zurich Project where he shared thoughts on “how to build a base of aligned LPs while spending less than 5% of time on marketing”. In the interview contained on these pages, Scott tells his story of entrepreneur-turned-investor, how he met legendary value investor Chuck Royce, and got him to write a check. Scott also talks about the CEOs he admires most and shares his latest investment theses on Limbach and Fiat Chrysler.
We also include in this issue the transcript of an exclusive interview Shai Dardashti conducted with global value investor Amit Wadhwaney last year. It a wide-ranging conversation on global investing, and I have no doubt you will enjoy Amit’s timeless wisdom and insights. On a personal note, Amit has been an incredible supporter of the global intelligent investing community over the years, and I thank him for the selfless way in which he has shared his perspectives and ideas.
I am also pleased to present in this issue an interview with Oliver Marti, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of CCI Healthcare. The CCI Healthcare investment team is a part of Columbus Circle Investors. For those of you investing in the healthcare sector, I believe you will find Oliver’s views to be carefully considered and well-informed.
Also inside, Samir Patel, another Zurich Project participant and up-and-coming value investor, shares an essay on buybacks, titled “Stop caring about bad share repurchases”.
In section two of this issue, entitled “Perspectives on Building a Great Investment Firm for the Long Term”, we are pleased to include transcripts of selected Zurich Project Podcast conversations: James Ferguson of Global Endowment Management on GEM’s approach to selecting managers, Jim Roumell of Roumell Asset Management on the mistake of trying to “go big”, Zeke Ashton of Centaur Capital Partners on improving the investment process through systematic analysis of mistakes, Daniel Gladiš of Vltava Fund on the importance of attracting the right clients, Phil Ordway of Anabatic Investment Partners on setting up his investment firm, and Samir Patel of Askeladden Capital on “grit, growth, and trait adaptivity”.
We recently launched the Zurich Project Podcast as a way of bringing selected insights of Zurich Project participants to the broader MOI Global community. The mission of the Zurich Project is to accelerate investment managers on their path to success in a principled, sustainable way. The goal is to help investors build a great business, one that will deliver value to the manager and his or her clients over the long term.
Earlier this month, we hosted the Zurich Project Summit, an annual invitation-only forum for sharing best practices in the areas of investment management, operations, and marketing. The event brings together a select group of managers and capital allocators in beautiful Zurich, Switzerland. At this year’s summit, participating capital allocators included university endowment managers from MIT, Notre Dame, and Yale University, among others, as well as allocators such as Global Endowment Management, van Biema Value Partners, and the YMCA Retirement Fund. We keep the number of participants limited due to venue restrictions—the event takes place at Uetliberg, overlooking the city of Zurich. As a member of MOI Global, you will receive priority as part of the invitation process for the June 2018 event.
Also inside this issue, we present in-depth investment theses on Cloud Peak Energy and TripAdvisor, two businesses that have virtually nothing in common, except perhaps the fact that they both represent compelling contrarian ideas. Shares of both companies appear to be shunned by most market participants at this time.
Arvind Mallik and Jonathon Fite of KMF Investments elaborate on the Cloud Peak thesis, while Mark Walker of Seven Pillar Capital Management explains why he considers TripAdvisor to be misunderstood and undervalued.
In the next issue of The Manual of Ideas, we will highlight a wider selection of investment ideas, as we expect compelling wide-moat ideas to surface at Wide-Moat Investing Summit, to be held from June 27-28.
I am pleased to let you know of a major improvement in the value-add of your MOI Global membership. Starting with next week’s Wide-Moat Investing Summit 2017, all of our online conferences are a complimentary feature of your membership. We host four online events per year: a Best Ideas conference in January, Asian Investing Summit in April, Wide-Moat Investing Summit in June/July, and European Investing Summit in October.
To date, participation in these events cost anywhere from $297 to about $800 per event. Going forward, you will enjoy full access at no charge. Access will be mostly restricted to MOI Global members, so that your ability to act on the ideas presented is minimally impacted by non-members acting on the same ideas (non-members may in certain circumstances be permitted to attend at a significant fee, which will be reinvested to improve your member experience).
Please stay tuned for access information to next week’s event —you will receive it by email. If you don’t see it by June 26 or if we can be of any assistance to you, please don’t hesitate to email me at [email protected].
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About The Author: MOI Global Editorial Team
The MOI Global Editorial Team, led by John Mihaljevic, CFA, includes community builders, event organizers, writers, editors, research associates, security analysts, and fanatical member support advocates. Our sole purpose is to serve the members of MOI Global as well as we possibly can in order to help them learn, invest intelligently, and build lifelong friendships with like-minded people.
Who is MOI Global? In recent years, The Manual of Ideas has expanded to become more than simply “the very best investing newsletter on the planet” (Mohnish Pabrai). We are now a thriving global community of intelligent investors, connected through great ideas, thought-provoking interviews, online conferences, live member events, and much more.
Members of MOI Global enjoy complimentary access to a growing array of resources and content related to the art of intelligent investing. Members also enjoy preferential access to selected offline events as well as exclusive access to other events hosted by MOI Global, including the Zurich Project Summit, the Latticework Conference, and Ideaweek.
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