I was filing some old papers over the weekend and came across a forgotten treasure: a set of bullet-points jotted down by an anonymous attendee of a speech called “Common Sense Investing”, given by Fidelity’s great Peter Lynch almost exactly 25 years ago, in May 1990 – to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
Last December, following the announcement early in the month of the Japanese GDP statistics for quarter ending September, the market promptly fell in response by 3% in a day.
The way we shop is changing. The advent of the internet has had an undeniable impact on global retail, with digital and community spaces increasingly interacting with traditional and new shopping channels.
A question that we have been asking ourselves recently is: how valuable is the data that our portfolio companies amass and have available at their disposal in the general course of what they do?
As holders of Diageo and Brown-Forman, we believe that premium spirits (broadly defined by the drinks industry as litre bottles retailing at over $15) hold a uniquely valuable place in the global spirits market.
Several of the companies in our portfolios own and create unique intellectual property, be it in TV and movies (Disney and WWE), video games (Nintendo) or sports (Juventus, Celtic and International Speedway).
Dividends are a crucial component of any long term equity strategy and, simply put, might be the only tangible return earned by the permanent owner of an equity asset.
I hope Crispin Odey – one of the real heroes of the active investment community – won’t object if I begin this discussion with a typically stimulating idea I heard attributed to him recently.
I’ve just read Howard Marks’ book – “The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor”. Marks is chairman and co-founder of Oaktree Capital, a recently-listed $6bn market cap US investment management company.
