If you’ve not done so already make sure to check out the Q2 2026 Fund Letters Round-Up - 185 letters have been added. It’s a treasure trove of insights and ideas.

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Latest interviews with fund managers/private investors sharing exclusive ideas not found anywhere else.

#138 - Seb Krog (Treasure Hunting) 📗

#137 - Colin King (Value Don’t Lie) 📗

#136 - Dan Rupp (Parkway Capital) 📗

BEST IDEA AWARD FOR THIS ISSUE 🏆

Tactile Fund on SigmaRoc 🇬🇧

European producer of lime and limestone products. Employs a buy and build strategy to acquire the unwanted quarries and kilns of larger companies, becoming ever more efficient and integral to the industrial workings of the continent.

The company is a prime operator of scarce assets (limestone quarries may not be especially rare, but just try building a new one) with strong geographic moats and healthy pricing power, the output of which is essential in countless industrial processes that enable civilization.

Trades at less than 7x estimated forward EBITDA.

A round-up of the best ‘fresh-off-the-press’ stock pitches…

Read more

To enjoy all the content we publish in full consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Subscribe now

Latest interviews with fund managers/private investors sharing their best ideas…

#138 - Seb Krog (Treasure Hunting) 📗

#137 - Colin King (Value Don’t Lie) 📗

#136 - Dan Rupp (Parkway Capital) 📗

BEST IDEA AWARD FOR THIS ISSUE 🏆

Dismissed & Asset-Backed on Graines Voltz 🇫🇷

A French distributor of seeds and young plants for professional horticulture and market gardening. Trading below book value.

A round-up of the best ‘fresh-off-the-press’ stock pitches…

Read more

If you’ve not done so already make sure to check out the Q2 2026 Fund Letters Round-Up - 164 letters have been added so far. It’s a treasure trove of insights and ideas.

Some interesting stats from the letters…

• Average YTD return +6.84%

• Best performing fund +66%

• Worst performing fund -28%

Most mentioned stocks -

TSMC, Constellation Software, Halma, Games Workshop, Cerillion, ASML, Netflix, Marex, Petrobras, Topicus, Warrior Met Coal, Vistance Networks.

To enjoy all the content we publish in full consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Subscribe now

Latest interviews with fund managers/private investors sharing their best ideas…

#138 - Seb Krog (Treasure Hunting)📗

#137 - Colin King (Value Don’t Lie) 📗

#136 - Dan Rupp (Parkway Capital) 📗

BEST IDEA AWARD FOR THIS ISSUE 🏆

Emeth Value Capital on Shift4 Payments 🇺🇸

Shift4 Payments is a vertically integrated payments company with leading positions across restaurants, hotels, stadiums, entertainment venues, and luxury retail. In particular, Shift4 owns the second-largest restaurant POS platform in the US, behind only Toast. 

162% upside to intrinsic value.

A round-up of the best ‘fresh-off-the-press’ stock pitches…

North America

Emeth Value Capital on Shift4 Payments 🇺🇸

A vertically integrated payments company.

Rijnberk InvestInsights on S&P Global 🇺🇸

AI disruption fears are wildly overblown, creating a great investment opportunity for long-term-oriented investors.

Six Sigma Capital on Cerebras Systems 🇺🇸

AI infrastructure company that designs and manufactures an AI compute platform comprised of proprietary systems and software.

Max Dividends on Alliant Energy 🇺🇸

Utility holding company supplying electricity and natural gas to customers across Iowa and Wisconsin.

Sylence Capital on Transoceanic Investments 🇺🇸

A holdco trading at a third of NAV.

Hated Moats on AppLovin 🇺🇸

An advertising tech company, now powered by AI.

Aurelion Research on Boston Scientific 🇺🇸

Developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices that are used in a range of interventional medical specialties.

White Willow Research on Miami International 🇺🇸

Operating leverage in full swing as fixed-cost tollbooth economics deliver record revenue, expanding EBITDA margins, and a structural runway in financial futures.

Andvari Associates on Rollins 🇺🇸

A 125-year-old pest control business with generations of runway still left.

Hidden Rock Capital on Entravision 🇺🇸

Dying legacy radio & TV company hiding an ad tech business growing at 100%+ per year.

Open Insights on Planet Fitness 🇺🇸

Franchisor and operator of fitness centers in the world.

Fundamental Value on Legacy Education 🇺🇸

California-focused for-profit post-secondary education company that has quietly assembled a network of nationally accredited campuses specializing in allied healthcare, nursing, and related vocational programs.

Dirt Cheap Stocks on Mobility Global 🇺🇸 🔒

A recent spin off of S&P Global Inc. It’s a business that is reminiscent of Moody’s or FICO. I believe it’s for sale at the wrong price.

The Oak Bloke on Norwegian Cruise Line 🇺🇸

A global cruise company.

Fugazi Research on Aeva Technologies 🇺🇸

Short thesis. Spent nearly a decade announcing lidar partnerships, hemorrhaging capital, and selling stock; the latest hyperscaler optics narrative does not change the maths.

Undiscovered Compounders on Innovative Solutions and Support 🇺🇸 🔒

A $50M contract, a customer whose order book is 83% non-binding, and a pro forma table that doesn’t add up.

RedFlagHunter on Capricor Therapeutics 🇺🇸

The FDA did not approve Deramiocel. Instead, this comes after an FDA advisory committee voted 9–3 against the effectiveness evidence supporting the drug.

Capitalist Letters on META 🇺🇸

Meta is now underperforming S&P 500 and other Mag7. Is it an opportunity?

The Curious Compounder on Intercontinental Exchange 🇺🇸

How liquidity, regulation and technology have driven 25 years of compounding.

Guardian Research on Applied Aerospace & Defense 🇺🇸

Small-cap defense manufacturer just lost a fifth of its value on a charge that cost the company nothing.

Lewistown Capital on Veeva Systems 🇺🇸

Evaluating Veeva’s AI vision, compass opportunity and valuation.

The Oak Bloke on Verra Mobility 🇺🇸

Operates what looks, at first glance, like a remarkably dull collection of tolling, traffic-enforcement and parking businesses.

Triple S Special Situations on Jumia 🇺🇸

A 7x return bet on African e-Commerce.

Kairos Research on ContextLogic 🇺🇸

ContextLogic is building a portfolio of high quality niche businesses and there is a good case to be made that this is just the first inning of a long game.

Deep Value Insights on Table Trac 🇺🇸

Their main product is a “casino management system” called CasinoTrac. It’s installed in more than 300 casinos and helps them track their money flows. 8.2x earnings. 4.7x EV/EBIT. No debt.

The International Investor on Ralph Lauren 🇺🇸

Design, marketing, and distribution of luxury lifestyle products, including apparel, footwear and accessories, home, fragrances and hospitality.

Nugget Capital Partner on GO Residential 🇨🇦

The Lantower spinout into the portfolio creates a powerhouse of a REIT.

Sylence Capital on Summit Royalties 🇨🇦

Fast growing royalty company trading near half of NAV.

Underlying Value on Parex Resources 🇨🇦 🔒

Colombian oil producer of onshore barrels that recently announced a farm-in deal with Ecopetrol and bought the assets of Frontera, a mature producer.

Europe

Real Assets Real Value on Alternative Income REIT 🇬🇧

Inside the takeover fight with an interesting spread.

Corfe Capital on Henderson Far East Income 🇬🇧

Eighteen years of rising dividends, a near 10% yield, and a discount that has quietly turned into a premium.

Wizard's Winners on Andrada Mining 🇬🇧

Critical raw materials producer with mining and exploration assets in Namibia.

Compound with René on Ashtead Technology 🇬🇧 🔒

Subsea technology solutions provider to the global offshore energy sector.

Crack The Market on Siltronic 🇩🇪

Only five companies on earth make the wafers beneath every AI chip, and Siltronic is the cheapest.

Arar Fund on Deutsche Rohstoff AG 🇩🇪

Production of crude oil and natural gas in the USA, and mining and exploration of metals such as lithium and tungsten.

Calm Capital on CEWE Stiftung & Co KGaA 🇩🇪

The European market leader in photofinishing. They sell photo books, calendars and other customized photo products.

Value & Opportunity on Fielmann Group 🇩🇪

Manufacturer of glasses, contact lenses and related eyewear products.

Business Model Mastery on Marimekko Oyj 🇫🇮

Engaged in the textile and clothing sector.

Dual Edge Invest on Dino Polska 🇵🇱

Revisiting a former finfluencer favorite, and the difference between scaling a footprint and compounding value.

Thank You Mr Market on Asseco South Eastern Europe 🇵🇱

A textbook quarter exemplifying management’s focus on profits and cash generation over revenue growth, with significant identified improvement potential yet untapped.

Goldman Won’t Cover This on Nova Ljubljanska Banka 🇸🇮

Slovenian bank, offers a wide range of financial services, including retail banking, commercial banking, investment banking, private banking, asset management, and insurance.

Asia

JPARCVUE on Hirata Corporation 🇯🇵

Since its founding in 1951, the company has designed, manufactured, and installed custom production equipment across three business segments.

Overlooked Alpha on Thecoo 🇯🇵 🔒

Engages in digital marketing services and the operation of a fan community platform in Japan called Fanicon. Profits just grew 642% and the stock still looks cheap.

ROE The Boat on Temairazu 🇯🇵 🔒

A quality microcap whose software assists hotels with bookings.

Terton Capital on Golfzon Holdings 🇰🇷

A second letter to the board regarding the extremely low tender offer.

Global Equities on Nice Information Service Co 🇰🇷

The top credit bureau in South Korea.

Fairlight Alpha Fund LP on Dong A Eltek 🇰🇷

A manufacturer of the equipment that deposits organic molecules on OLED and OLEDoS screens. Even for a Korean holding company discount this is extreme.

Demystified Value on Cuckoo Holdings 🇰🇷

A blue chip rice cooker duopoly at a discount. 5.7x P/E, 6% dividend for a growing business with 70% Korean market share and excellent brand power.

Price to Tangible Bruce on JW Life Science 🇰🇷

A manufacturer of essential IV fluids and nutrition.

Tailwind Holdings on Baguio Green Group 🇭🇰

The government’s garbage man trades for 3.9x earnings. 0.78x tangible book, 23% ROIC, a 7.5% dividend.

Asia Century Stocks on Trip. com 🇭🇰

China's largest online travel agent, now expanding internationally.

Australasia

Raper Capital on Ausgold Limited 🇦🇺

A letter to the board about the recent offer which undervalues the company.

Thanks for reading.

Come say hello on X and LinkedIn

Disclaimer

This article is for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be seen as investment advice. Please do your own research before investing in any company mentioned.

If you’ve not done so already make sure to check out the Q2 2026 Fund Letters Round-Up - 146 letters have been added so far. It’s a treasure trove of insights and ideas.

To enjoy all the content we publish in full consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Subscribe now

Latest interviews with fund managers/private investors sharing their best ideas…

#138 - Seb Krog (Treasure Hunting)📗

#137 - Colin King (Value Don’t Lie) 📗

#136 - Dan Rupp (Parkway Capital) 📗

BEST IDEA AWARD FOR THIS ISSUE 🏆

Ennismore European Smaller Companies Fund on Bravida Holding 

Europe's AI infrastructure buildout is creating a multi-year opportunity for contractors with the technical capability to deliver hyperscale data centres. 

We believe Bravida is emerging as one of the Nordic beneficiaries, yet the market continues to value it as a conventional contractor.

A round-up of the best ‘fresh-off-the-press’ stock pitches…

Read more

If you’ve not done so already make sure to check out the Q2 2026 Fund Letters Round-Up - 136 letters have been added so far. It’s a treasure trove of insights and ideas.

To enjoy all the content we publish in full consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Subscribe now

Latest interviews with fund managers/private investors sharing their best ideas…

#138 - Seb Krog (Treasure Hunting)📗

#137 - Colin King (Value Don’t Lie) 📗

#136 - Dan Rupp (Parkway Capital) 📗

BEST IDEA AWARD FOR THIS ISSUE 🏆

Gator Financial Partners on Navient 🇺🇸

Navient trades at roughly 40% of tangible book value as investors continue to view it as a runoff portfolio of legacy student loans, in other words, a melting ice cube. 

We believe that Navient is becoming a growth lender again, and investor perception will shift in time. 

The private student lending market is entering its first meaningful expansion in more than fifteen years, an activist investor has completed a major restructuring of the company, and early evidence suggests Navient’s loan portfolio may be returning to growth for the first time in years.

A round-up of the best ‘fresh-off-the-press’ stock pitches…

Read more

If you’ve not done so already make sure to check out the Q2 2026 Fund Letters Round-Up - 134 letters have been added so far. It’s a treasure trove of insights and ideas.

To enjoy all the content we publish in full consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Subscribe now

Latest interviews with fund managers/private investors sharing their best ideas…

#138 - Seb Krog (Treasure Hunting)📗

#137 - Colin King (Value Don’t Lie) 📗

#136 - Dan Rupp (Parkway Capital) 📗

BEST IDEA AWARD FOR THIS ISSUE 🏆

BAVARIA Industries Group AG on The Property Franchise Group 🇬🇧

Rather than owning large networks of company-operated branches, TPFG mainly acts as a franchisor. The local offices are independently owned by franchisees, while TPFG provides branding, technology, support systems, training, compliance assistance, and referral networks in exchange for recurring royalty fees.

The underlying economics are also impressive. The business generates EBITDA margins of roughly 45%, converts more than 100% of earnings into free cash flow, and earns after-tax returns on invested capital above 20%.

Despite the quality of the business, TPFG still trades at roughly 12x expected 2025 free cash flow, with very modest leverage of around 0.3x net debt to EBITDA. For a business with recurring revenue, high cash conversion, and long-term organic growth, that valuation does not strike me as demanding.

Our own expectation is that TPFG could compound earnings per share at roughly 13–15% annually over the next several years through a mix of organic growth, operational improvements, acquisitions, and ongoing share count discipline.

A round-up of the best ‘fresh-off-the-press’ stock pitches…

Read more

(Disclaimer: This interview is for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be seen as investment advice. Please do your own research before investing in any company mentioned).

Thanks for taking the time to do this interview.

Can you please tell readers about your background, and how you got involved in investing?

Sure. I first got involved with investing when I was 17 and I read a book about compound interest. I convinced my parents to set up a brokerage account for me so I could buy ETFs, and I started dollar-cost averaging 50EUR or something into an ETF. Eventually, one or two years later, I figured, “Okay, with 50EUR/month I will not get rich.”

So my focus shifted to earning more money with my first entrepreneurial project. First, I started selling products on Amazon when I was 18 or 19, so I stopped investing into ETFs and invested all my money to import the product from China and sell it on Amazon.

This first venture later led me to build a marketing agency around Amazon and later other topics of online marketing. I ran that agency with a business partner until 2024.

During Covid, I picked up on “One up on Wall Street” and then I became obsessed about stock picking and went down the rabbit hole of investing.

Since 2021, when I first read that book, I have basically spent every day learning about investing and researching companies, and since 2024 I’m doing this full time.

What type of businesses, or situations, do you like to invest in?

I like anything that is inflecting, so my main principle is change: anything that flips from negative to positive. There are many ways to achieve that:

• Maybe a company focuses its capital allocation on a different segment.

• Maybe in the industry headwinds turn into tailwinds.

• Maybe the company has a new product.

• Maybe there is a change in the industry landscape (e.g. a competitor exiting).

There can really be a lot of different ways, but change is the commonality amongst anything I look at. Obviously change to the positive, not to the negative.

You’ve been a full time investor for two years now. Has your style or approach to investing changed in that time?

I would say the answer about what I look for, I would have given you the same answer two years ago. This concept of change or “inflection points” is still the same. I would just say that the way I’m trying to get to that inflection point may have changed a little bit.

I think on the stock-picking side it’s now actually a little bit bigger company. Two years ago it was really sub-$100 million market cap. Now I almost prefer the $100 to, say, $500 million range because usually those businesses are just a little bit more established.

Also, I approach it now much more from an industry lens. I’ve come to the realization that a lot of the returns and a lot of what drives growth or profits in a business, in most cases, is determined by the industry.

There are some companies who are able to outgrow the industry and those are obviously tremendous, but they are hard to find, and also most of the time somebody has figured that out so that is a little bit more expensive.

There is also some company-specific work going on, but I really pay much closer attention to the industry and also to the downside in general. Anything that maybe has some hard assets where you can say that, OK, there’s a valuation floor.

I also came to appreciate that more because if you get the inflection right then the upside usually takes care of itself.

What do you think has made your newsletter so successful?

And what tips or advice would you give someone who’s thinking of launching their own letter?

Well, I guess it depends on what the goal is that they want to achieve. If you just want to make as much money as you can, that’s probably correlated with how often you write about stuff and how appealing you are to a broad audience.

If you look at the top-earning newsletters, most of them are macro-related because everyone is affected by macro. I didn’t start mine to earn as much money as I can, so for me it’s just the question of what purpose the newsletter should serve.

For me the stock picking always comes first and the newsletter is an expression of sharing my stock picking. I cannot give you much advice on building a successful newsletter because that was never the goal, so I never optimized for that.

I just want to be measured by my returns, and I think that if they do well, the newsletter should at least do OK. That being said, I think this is probably the hardest way to grow a newsletter. But it’s the only sustainable way for me that feels natural.

What stocks are you bullish on at the moment?

Read more

If you’ve not done so already make sure to check out the Q2 2026 Fund Letters Round-Up - 115 letters have been added so far. It’s a treasure trove of insights and ideas.

To enjoy all the content we publish in full consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Subscribe now

Latest interviews with fund managers sharing their best ideas…

#137 - Colin King (Value Don’t Lie) 📗

#136 - Dan Rupp (Parkway Capital) 📗

#135 - David Ridland (Castlebay Investment Partners) 📗

BEST IDEA AWARD FOR THIS ISSUE 🏆

Minot Light Capital Partners on Xtract One Technologies 🇨🇦

One of the leading providers of automated weapons detection systems for sports and entertainment venues, schools, hospitals, manufacturing facilities, and offices. A possible multi-bagger.

A round-up of the best ‘fresh-off-the-press’ stock pitches…

Read more

(Disclaimer: This interview is for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be seen as investment advice. Please do your own research before investing in any company mentioned).

Thanks for taking the time to do this interview.

Can you please tell readers about your background, and how you got involved in investing in public companies?

My background is a blend of accounting, investing, and entrepreneurship.

I started my career in Big Four accounting, auditing public and private company financial statements.

This was a huge leap in my understanding of accounting and how financial statements are built (i.e. what lives behind each number). It also gave me early exposure to talking with company executives and management teams. I’m still hanging onto my CPA license to this day.

The next phase of my career was public markets investing as an analyst on the buy-side at a long-only GARP/special situations firm.

It was a small team of 3-4 analysts, very collegial, I covered 10 portfolio companies and had freedom to look at anything. I wasn’t really into investing in college, so I caught the “bug” a little later than most folks.

I learned a ton during my time at this fund, my PM and another analyst were phenomenal mentors and they had very different styles of investing.

On my first day of work, my PM handed me a copy of Greenblatt’s You Can Be A Stock Market Genius, which was pretty cool in hindsight.

We looked at just about every spin-off during my time there, if that gives you a sense for my current style of investing.

I was introduced to the concept of buying private companies from a colleague around 2015.

As a young and naïve value investor, I was attracted to the idea of building a mini-Berkshire style holding company of private businesses while redeploying cash flow into acquisitions or investments. It took 10+ years, but I finally did get there.

I met my current business partner in 2017. We have totally different world views, he’s an extremely frugal MacGyver-esque operator and marketer who previously worked at Google. And I’m a bit more risk tolerant, financial engineering type.

We’ve pulled together a few crafty special sits acquisitions in the private markets. It’s made for an excellent partnership and we continue to own everything 50/50 to this day.

We spent a year searching for a business to buy. My original thought was: take the things I learned in the public markets and how to identify a good business, and apply that to buying a private company.

In 2018, we bought our first business together, which was a parts delivery business, running auto and ag parts to dealerships in a tri-state area during a graveyard shift (12am to 11am was a typical shift). It was hard work with plenty of lessons learned.

That business was eventually sold and we redeployed the cash into a few other things throughout 2019.

Its been a slow build since then, but we’ve acquired at least one business each year since then, have sold a few things along the way, and added enough scale where we have a management team or at least a General Manager in each business.

Today, we have four operating groups in our holding company: a vertically-integrated consumer business, a home décor distributor, a financial training and services business, and a specialty insurance business.

We’re working on some public company investments at the holding company level as well, likely some friendly activist / suggestivist situations in smaller companies.

Hopefully our acquisition and operating experience can bring value to some of these smaller public companies.

Can you provide readers with a brief overview of Value Don’t Lie?

My newsletter covers mostly special situations of all varieties which I define as…

• spin-offs

• post-reorg

• management changes

• M&A transformations

• stub securities,

• activist investments,

• good co / bad co situations

• turnarounds

• liquidations

I’m an all-cap investor focused in the U.S. and tend to find my best ideas in the $1 billion to $3 billion market cap range.

Some background on the newsletter…

You either have the public markets bug or you don’t, so despite the private company endeavors, I’ve never really stopped following the markets ever since I left my buy-side role.

VDL started in 2019 as a simple blog for me to track notes and otherwise force myself to keep doing research.

Eventually, it grew and I turned on the paywall, which forced me to keep at it and produce good work.

To understand what VDL is about is to understand my “Mount Rushmore” of investors…

I consider myself a value investor looking for cheap stocks. I’ve always been attracted to Walter Schloss with his purely quantitative approach and flexibility to own a wide basket of stocks (i.e. minimal concentration).

Next is Greenblatt… I love the concept of catalyst-driven investing and looking for hard events or inflections which can force a re-rate.

Most investors have an image of Michael Burry based on what he’s doing on Substack today; but years ago, there was an excellent article on his approach and style, which I devoured.

His concept of “ick” investing really resonated with me. To this day, I love finding ideas that others are repulsed by. The less popular a name is, the more I want to do work on it.

Last is the classic Buffett partnership era. There’s a lot you can take away from this part of his career: a willingness to own private stuff, control investments, special situations, plain vanilla, cheap stocks, you name it.

What two stocks are you currently bullish on?

Read more

If you’ve not done so already make sure to check out the Q2 2026 Fund Letters Round-Up - 76 letters have been added so far. It’s a treasure trove of insights and ideas.

To enjoy all the content we publish in full consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Subscribe now

Latest interviews with fund managers sharing their best ideas…

#136 - Dan Rupp (Parkway Capital) 📗

#135 - David Ridland (Castlebay Investment Partners) 📗

#134 - Patrick Rial (TriVista Capital/Hosomichi Fund) 📗

BEST IDEA AWARD FOR THIS ISSUE 🏆

Deep Sail Capital Partners on Celestica 🇺🇸

Celestica has transitioned from its legacy roots as an IBM captive manufacturer to become a design and technology integration leader within the AI and cloud infrastructure space.

Celestica is well-positioned for multi-year revenue and profitability growth, driven by secular tailwinds in AI data center expansion specifically leveraged to 1.6T networking and Co-packaged Optics, both of which are burgeoning trends in data center architecture.

A round-up of the best ‘fresh-off-the-press’ stock pitches…

Read more

(Disclaimer: This interview is for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be seen as investment advice. Please do your own research before investing in any company mentioned).

Thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview.

Can you please tell readers about your background, and how you got involved in investing?

I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina in a large family. My three brothers and I all worked summer jobs to make some money, and at some point we started pooling that money to invest.

My oldest brother was the fund manager, and we bought a handful of stocks. While the analysis may have been limited, it got me excited about the stock market and drew my attention to the business section of the local newspaper – the Winston-Salem Journal. Before those summers, I turned first to the sports section.

After I graduated college, I taught in math and science in Cameroon as part of the Peace Corps and then spent time in Japan with the JET program.

After those experiences learning about the world, I returned to earn my MBA at Yale where I studied finance and investing. That jumpstarted my career as a professional investor when I was introduced to Overlook Investments.

Can you provide readers with a brief overview of your investment style and strategy - what type of businesses and situations do you like to invest in?

I spent nearly two decades at Hong Kong-based Overlook Investments, which manages around $8 billion and has one of the most successful track records of investing in Asia.

After studying the art and science of investing in Asia from my mentors – Richard Lawrence and James Squire – I wanted to embrace my entrepreneurial spirit and build my own firm focusing on small, growing businesses that wouldn’t move the needle for a larger fund.

Parkway is a pan-Asia (excluding India) long-only equity fund, primarily investing in compounders with a focus on value.

I founded Parkway in the summer of 2023, a time when some were calling China ‘uninvestible.’ It was a great time to launch a fund focused on value in Asia because we had many attractive opportunities available.

We split Asia into three geographies: North Asia (Taiwan, Japan, Korea), China + HK, and Southeast Asia.

We aim to have some balance across these three regions. Our objective is to deliver a portfolio with at least 10% earnings growth and at least 3% dividend yield. We call this the 10+3 Framework.

While 10% growth may sound easy, since its 2006 inception our benchmark has delivered 3% earnings growth and the S&P 500 has delivered 6% earnings growth over that period.

In addition to superior through-cycle growth, value is core to our investing style. Our mantra is to be ‘higher-quality and cheaper’ than the passive alternative.

Our investible universe across Asian markets is about 10,000 companies. We categorize companies as compounders, defensive, or deep value. We aim to keep most of the portfolio in compounders, whose primary function is to help us achieve at least 10% earnings growth for the fund.

We underwrite compounders for holding periods of at least 2-3 years, and I think in the fund today we have a handful of companies that we can hold for a decade or more.

Joining me on the team is our Chief Operating Officer Tom Royds and three wonderful analysts. One of our analysts brings more of a quant background and has created several useful tools that I use in managing the portfolio.

We keep the Parkway scorecard, which is a great way to quickly reduce our investible universe to a more manageable number of ideas.

Visiting companies and meeting management teams is crucial to our investment process, and collectively we meet about 300 companies each year.

The scorecard gives us a snapshot of a company’s financial history and current valuation, and we use the company meetings as a chance to learn more about the short- and medium-term outlook.

We don’t invest in companies just because they are cheap. There are hundreds of statistically cheap companies across Asia.

We also need the business to be high quality and managed by trustworthy executives who are taking clear steps to improve the business and grow shareholder value.

We look at capital returns very carefully, and the portfolio currently has a dividend yield of 4.4% and a buyback yield of 1.9%.

Where in Asia are you finding some of the most compelling opportunities? Is there any country or industry you will avoid?

Within North Asia, we are most keen on Korean small and mid-cap companies.

A lot of great companies that have little to do with artificial intelligence are being ignored by local retail investors piling into Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. That has created a lot of temporary dislocations and great buying opportunities.

Similarly, many Chinese “old tech” companies are currently unloved. The Hang Seng Index fell almost 20% over a six-month period this year as investors rushed to buy into hot AI-related IPOs.

Several of the highest-quality Chinese tech companies are now trading at single-digit multiples, sitting on tons of cash, and are actively buying back a meaningful amount of their own stock.

We think a lot of the more established Chinese tech companies are undervalued, and we want to be invested in a select few of these companies where management is most aggressively taking advantage by reducing their share count at attractive prices.

Finally, in southeast Asia we continue to like Indonesia and the Philippines. While the Iran war has created some obvious short-term fiscal headwinds for these countries due to their energy imports, the companies we own there tend to have fortress balance sheets and offer a great combination of growth and yield.

What company are you sharing with readers today?

Read more

If you’ve not done so already make sure to check out the Q2 2026 Fund Letters Round-Up - 50 letters have been added so far. It’s a treasure trove of insights and ideas.

To enjoy all the content we publish in full consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Subscribe now

Latest interviews with fund managers/investors sharing their best ideas…

#135 - David Ridland (Castlebay Investment Partners) 📗

#134 - Patrick Rial (TriVista Capital/Hosomichi Fund) 📗

#133 - Lee Roach (The Value Road) 📗

BEST IDEA AWARD FOR THIS ISSUE 🏆

Palm Valley Capital Fund on Vontier

Sells the equipment, software, and recurring services that help convenience stores pump gas and process payments, repair shops diagnose problems, and car washes operate efficiently. 

The company has applied its cash flow to repurchasing stock and repaying debt, and the current enterprise value is near the low end of its range since the 2020 spinoff. Shares are trading for 9x expected 2026 free cash flow.

A round-up of the best ‘fresh-off-the-press’ stock pitches…

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It’s exactly what it says on the tin - a curation of quarterly letters from a variety of fund managers, especially emerging fund managers.

Not every Q2 letter is released in the first ten days of July. However, below are 45 letters to get stuck into right away.

Visit the Quarterly Letters page on the website to see the latest letters as we continually add them.

To access to all our fantastic content consider becoming a premium subscriber.

Latest interviews with fund managers sharing their best ideas…

#135 - David Ridland (Castlebay Investment Partners) 📗

#134 - Patrick Rial (TriVista Capital/Hosomichi Fund) 📗

#133 - Lee Roach (The Value Road) 📗

2026 YTD Performances rounded-up (measured in USD on 30th June 2026).

S&P 500: 10%
Gold Oz: -8.4%
Bitcoin: -33.6%

Fund average so far: 6.84%

A round-up of the most interesting Q2 2026 fund letters published so far…

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Latest interviews with fund managers/investors sharing their best ideas…

#135 - David Ridland (Castlebay Investment Partners) 📗

#134 - Patrick Rial (TriVista Capital/Hosomichi Fund) 📗

#133 - Lee Roach (The Value Road) 📗

BEST IDEA AWARD FOR THIS ISSUE 🏆

Top Tick Research on Securitize Inc 🇺🇸

The leading regulated infrastructure provider for tokenized real-world assets.

Traditional financial institutions are increasingly moving assets on-chain. At the same time, crypto-native investors are becoming more interested in real-world assets and the infrastructure supporting them.

Securitize sits directly at the center of that trend. If the tokenization of capital markets continues to gain traction, Securitize may become one of the clearest public-market beneficiaries of that shift.

A round-up of the best ‘fresh-off-the-press’ stock pitches…

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For this edition we have removed the paywall so free subscribers can see what they’re missing. Enjoy.

If you’re starting research on a company make sure to check out the Company Index. This is a great place to start researching a stock. There are nearly 2,000 stocks listed so far, with more added every month.

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Latest interviews with fund managers/investors sharing their best ideas…

#135 - David Ridland (Castlebay Investment Partners) 📗

#134 - Patrick Rial (TriVista Capital/Hosomichi Fund) 📗

#133 - Lee Roach (The Value Road) 📗

BEST IDEA AWARD FOR THIS ISSUE 🏆

Dirt Cheap Europe on Churchill China 🇬🇧

Manufacturer of performance ceramics. Priced as a corpse, built like a survivor. 0.6x Book. Net cash. 6.5% dividend, and a 217-year-old rival that just died.

A round-up of the best ‘fresh-off-the-press’ stock pitches…

North America

Value Never Sleeps on GEE Group 🇺🇸

Provider of professional staffing services and human resource solutions. An activist-driven sale story trading near cash.

Deep Sail Capital on SuperCom 🇺🇸

Electronic monitoring disruptor nano-cap. 70-90% hidden revenue growth. 4× Adj EBITDA

Price and Punishment on Meridian Holdings 🇺🇸

Gaming technology company operating across multiple international markets.

Fugazi Research on Freecast 🇺🇸

Short thesis. Provides smart guide digital interactive technology for consumers to organize various sources of online media.

The Lion’s Roar on FST 🇺🇸

Manufacturer of golf shafts.

SixSigmaCapital on Ouster 🇺🇸

Designs hardware/software that allow robots, autonomous vehicles, and smart city infrastructure to navigate the physical world safely.

D Invests on Zoetis 🇺🇸

Global animal health company.

Atai CM on BK Technologies 🇺🇸

Provides public safety grade communications products and services.

Jimmy’s Journal on Arista Networks 🇺🇸 🔒

A high-quality compounder, positioned to outperform.

Bearhold Research on Wingstop 🇺🇸

Fast casual chicken wings-focused restaurant chain.

Maaiz Khan on Barnes & Noble Education 🇺🇸

Operator of physical and virtual bookstores for college and university campuses.

Pelican Way Research on Hyliion 🇺🇸

Short thesis. Designs and develops power generators for stationary and mobile applications.

Bedrock Value on Ashford Hospitality Trust 🇺🇸

Special situation. $2.6 billion of non-recourse debt, a huge advisor termination fee with priority claim, and a stub that’s worth somewhere between zero and several times today’s price.

BioEquity Watch on Vera Therapeutics 🇺🇸

Sitting on a massive opportunity in the autoimmune kidney disease space, and we think the stock could climb 77% to hit $74.00.

Quality Value Research on Atlassian 🇺🇸

Provider of team collaboration and productivity software.

Hidden Gems Investing on Strattec Security 🇺🇸 🔒

A family business being transformed by its first professional CEO. An automotive supplier that designs and manufactures door handles, power access, keys, locks, latches and other products.

Bourseko on Reddit 🇺🇸

The most valuable data on the web.

Umibōzu Research on EquipmentShare 🇺🇸

Short thesis. Equipment rental platform servicing jobsite.

GabGrowth on Man Utd 🇺🇸

Deep dive on the Premier League football club.

Onchain Mind on Strategy 🇺🇸

Bitcoin treasury company trading under NAV.

Emerging Value on Inter & Co 🇺🇸

Brazil-based company that developed a global payments platform combining a fully digital backbone with integration with other payments platforms.

Firm Returns on Charter Communications 🇺🇸

Uncertainty around competition from new technologies and a heavy debt burden have pushed Charter's share price to its lowest level in a decade.

P14 Capital on Belden 🇺🇸

90%+ upside in a mispriced IT/OT networking leader at an inflection.

The Mikro Kap on Solitron Devices 🇺🇸 🔒

Designs and manufactures semiconductor components for the military and aerospace industry.

Warden Capital on United Parks and Resorts 🇺🇸

Owner of Seaworld, Busch Gardens and a few smaller resorts, is a very interesting high yield hard asset opportunity right now.

Kairos Research on Aimia 🇨🇦

Previously an airline rewards business that unraveled and is now converting into a permanent capital vehicle.

Nugget Capital on H&R Real Estate Investment Trust 🇨🇦

Owner, operator and developer of residential and industrial properties.

Doug Casey on Sonoro Gold 🇨🇦

A $95 million company sitting on a $340 million mine.

Europe

Welfare Capital Research on Distribution Finance Capital Holdings 🇬🇧

Specialist UK bank growing BVPS at 15% CAGR, trading at 80% of tangible book value and PE 7, repurchasing shares with ambitious targets.

Price to Tangible Bruce on Nexteq 🇬🇧

Specialist B2B technology outsourcer. Supplies the computing hardware and display systems that sit inside slot machines and industrial equipment such as broadcast panels and medical devices.

Dirt Cheap Europe on Churchill China 🇬🇧

Manufacturer of performance ceramics. Priced as a corpse, built like a survivor. 0.6x Book. Net cash. 6.5% dividend, and a 217-year-old rival that just died.

Maynard Paton on ME Group 🇬🇧

Operates, sells and services a range of instant-service vending equipment, primarily aimed at the consumer market. P/E 7, DY 8%.

Businesses Not Stocks on Headlam 🇬🇧

Short sellers, management without a track record, rubbish business... it’s all pretty bad. So why am I buying shares?

Corfe Capital on Hargreaves Services 🇬🇧

Diversified industrial services group. No debt, a 4.9% yield, and active positions on HS2, Sizewell C and the Lower Thames Crossing.

Price to Tangible Bruce on Grainger 🇬🇧

The UK’s largest listed residential landlord, owning and operating modern build-to-rent apartments in major cities across the country. 0.55x TBV for a 15% compounder with activists onboard.

The Oak Bloke on LBG Media 🇬🇧

Operates a global digital entertainment business with a focus on young adults. Single digit P/E, no net debt.

Businesses Not Stocks on Shoe Zone 🇬🇧

Omni-channel footwear retailer. Deep value play.

Goldman Won’t Cover This on Gaztransport et Technigaz SA 🇫🇷

Engineering company specialized in containment systems for the shipping and storage in cryogenic conditions of LNG.

Kubang Pasu Capital on Vusion 🇫🇷

Shareholder selling and Walmart fears have crushed the stock, but recurring revenue and European contracts may change the story.

Crack The Market on BE Semiconductor Industries 🇳🇱 🔒

The packaging monopoly at the heart of the 3D chip era.

Fluent In Quality on Cembre 🇮🇹

A maker of electrical connectors and the tools to install them. Quality compounder.

Dismissed & Asset-Backed on Emak 🇮🇹

Industrial group focused on outdoor power equipment, pumps and high-pressure water jetting, and related components & accessories. A family-controlled Italian acquisitive conglomerate at 0.81x TB.

Goldman Won’t Cover This on Kri Kri 🇬🇷

Family business, yogurt manufacture.

Boredom Baron on ATOSS Software SE 🇩🇪

A debt-free, founder-built, cash-gushing workforce-management software business.

Deep Value Stocks on Aumann AG 🇩🇪

Machine builder focused on automation solutions, including production lines for electric drivetrains and other industrial applications.

Heavy Moat Investments on innoscripta SE 🇩🇪 🔒

Specialized in cloud-based compliance software for research and development.

Boredom Baron on Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG 🇩🇪

A 175-year-old company makes enormous metal machines that put ink on paper.

Tactile Fund on UIE Plc 🇩🇰

A 48% shareholder in one of the world’s largest, most profitable, and most environmentally friendly palm oil producers, United Plantations Berhad.

Global Outperformers on Investment AB Latour 🇸🇪 🔒

An industrial conglomerate, part family office and part serial acquirer.

Toni on Rex Concepts SA 🇵🇱

Restaurant operator who owns the exclusive rights to operate Popeyes and Burger King Re

Asia

Value & Opportunity on Tokio Marine 🇯🇵

Insurance business, Berkshire’s newest holding.

Kubang Pasu Capital on China Beststudy Education 🇭🇰 🔒

Provides educational services. Debt-free, 36% ROE compounder growing 50%+ a year, trading at 3x EBITDA after a 40% fall.

TheCatalyst on Pinduoduo 🇭🇰

Owns and operates a portfolio of e-commerce businesses.

Numbers not Narrative on Dongsung FineTec 🇰🇷

A cryogenic-insulation maker trading at under 9× earnings, with a 25% ROE, net cash, and three years of revenue already signed.

Tiger Thesis on Selamat Sempurna 🇮🇩

Manufactures both automotive and industrial filtration products.

ROW

Quipus Capital on Alpargatas 🇧🇷 🔒

Footwear manufacturing company owns Havaianas, the largest flip-flop brand in Brazil.

Thanks for reading.

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Disclaimer

This article is for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be seen as investment advice. Please do your own research before investing in any company mentioned.

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Latest interviews with fund managers/investors sharing their best ideas…

#135 - David Ridland (Castlebay Investment Partners) 📗

#134 - Patrick Rial (TriVista Capital/Hosomichi Fund) 📗

#133 - Lee Roach (The Value Road) 📗

BEST IDEA AWARD FOR THIS ISSUE 🏆

European Stock Picks on Obrascon Huarte Lain SA

A deep value turnaround hiding in the global infrastructure boom.

A Spanish construction and civil engineering company, mainly involved in infrastructure and commercial property construction and the operation of concessions.

Trophy asset in the center of Madrid could wipe out the entirety of its (very costly) debt.

Trading at a severe discount relative to its peer group, the stock offers a highly conservative path to double from current levels.

A round-up of the best ‘fresh-off-the-press’ stock pitches…

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(Disclaimer: This interview is for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be seen as investment advice. Please do your own research before investing in any company mentioned).

Hi David, We last spoke in 2021, a lot has happened since then. Have you made any tweaks or changes to your investment approach or style?

Jeff Bezos was once asked what he thought would change in the next ten years. He said the more interesting question is what stays the same!

For us, in investing, the answer is straightforward: Quality, value - in that order. We don’t want to overpay for the privilege of owning a great business; and we won’t get in the way of the compounding returns those businesses make for us over time.

That principle hasn’t changed since we launched the fund. Having said that, we are always trying to get better and evolve. We’ve never been comfortable standing still analytically.

Over the last few years having developed an analytical database, called Wayfinder, we have sought to enhance its capabilities. Recently, we have developed our Fund Intelligence Dashboard, the greatest benefit of which is to maximise our ‘thinking time’ through efficiently gathering and analysing the critical factors underpinning our investment theses.

One of the most important developments to our analytical toolkit has been what we call cashflow lifecycle analysis. The insight is deceptively simple: the right capital allocation behaviour looks very different depending on where a business sits in its lifecycle; and the market is often slow to notice when management gets this wrong.

A young, high-growth business should be reinvesting aggressively its free cashflow back into the business. We expect capital intensity to be higher than at other stages and we understand that. However, a mature business that has passed its peak growth phase should be doing something very different: harvesting returns, generating cash and returning it to shareholders.

When we see a mature company chasing growth — acquiring at inflated prices, building capacity into a saturated market, leveraging up to fund expansion — that’s a significant warning signal. The market tends to reward the activity initially, because growth is instinctively appealing. We’ve learned to be sceptical of it.

What cashflow lifecycle analysis gives us is a systematic framework for identifying these behavioural mismatches early — before their effects are felt in reported earnings and hopefully before the share price responds.

A management team allocating capital well through the lifecycle of their business is creating shareholder value quietly and consistently. Yet, through the wrong incentive structures, management can destroy value, often whilst appearing to grow earnings in the short term.

The two systems work together. The valuation discipline of Wayfinder sits alongside the quality surveillance and lifecycle analysis of the Dashboard.

Between them they answer the questions that matter most: is this still the business we thought it was, is management stewarding capital the way we’d expect at this point in the lifecycle and are we still paying a sensible price?

The average free cash flow yield for your fund is 6%, and the dividend yield 4%. I was quite surprised to read that. Is this the highest they’ve been since you launched the fund?

Yes. And the surprise you feel reading those numbers is, I think, the right reaction.

Look at the valuation graph below. The red valuation line hit the extreme valuation point (the lower dotted red line), at the end of March this year. That’s when the free cashflow yield hit 6%. It often seems to us that valuation means less ‘in the middle’. It is at the extremes when it most impacts future returns.

Our average return on equity is 35% — more than double the market average. Our operating margins are 24% against 17% for the broader market. These are not ordinary businesses. They generate cash with a kind of efficiency that most companies never achieve; and the market is currently pricing that cash as if it were unremarkable.

To your question about whether this is a record - yes it is. When we launched our fund in January 2015, quality compounders were in vogue and you paid a premium to own them. It took us five years to become fully invested in the fund as we didn’t want to overpay for these quality companies.

Over recent years, the narrative has shifted. Investors have rotated toward lower quality companies — toward cyclicals, commodity producers, financials. The businesses we own, which compound quietly and consistently, are sitting in the waiting room while noisier assets attract the crowd.

“A 6% free cash flow yield on businesses with a 35% return on equity. The market is pricing these compounders as if the compounding will stop. We don’t think it will.”

The dividend yield tells a similar story. 4% from a portfolio of quality growth businesses is rare. These companies pay dividends from genuine surplus cash — after reinvesting in the business, after maintaining the balance sheet, after funding organic growth. That’s a very different 4% from a company paying out more than it earns.

Perhaps things are changing though? From the end of March, as of writing, our fund has risen by 10% - outperforming our peers and the market by some margin. Whilst the free cashflow yield has fallen to 5.6% and the dividend yield to 3.7%, strong operating results from our companies have helped maintain these compelling valuations.

In short, valuations are still at the extreme, all while our companies continue to deliver double digit earnings and cashflow growth. (11% annualised earnings growth over the last 5 and 10 years.)

What two stocks are you sharing with readers today?

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Latest interviews with fund managers sharing their best ideas…

#134 - Patrick Rial (TriVista Capital/Hosomichi Fund) 📗

#133 - Lee Roach (The Value Road) 📗

#132 - Anthony Fruci (Halvio Capital) 📗

BEST IDEA AWARD FOR THIS ISSUE 🏆

Miller Value Funds on Bloomin’ Brands 🇺🇸

BLMN owns a portfolio of established casual dining brands and is executing a management-led transformation aimed at restoring traffic, margins, and brand relevance, yet the shares continue to trade at a compelling valuation on an under-earning asset base. 

A round-up of the best ‘fresh-off-the-press’ stock pitches…

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Patrick discusses his background, approach to investing, and shares two stock ideas.

(Disclaimer: This interview is for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be seen as investment advice. Please do your own research before investing in any company mentioned).

Hi Patrick, thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview.

Can you please tell readers about your background, and how you got involved in investing?

Hi Jon. Thanks so much for this opportunity. I am a big fan of Capital Employed and have discovered a number of interesting Japanese stocks here.

I am an American but have been living in Japan for 23 years. My original goal was to be a journalist; I fancied myself the next Malcom Gladwell and dreamed of writing for The New Yorker. Unfortunately, I graduated in the early 2000s, just as print journalism embarked on a never-ending structural decline.

I couldn’t find a job in journalism, so I came to Japan to work as an English teacher on the premise that if I waited a year maybe the Internet would disappear and the industry would come roaring back. I am still waiting for this thesis to play out!

My interest in Japan dates back to my obsession with the Karate Kid movies. In the early 2000s I even tracked down Ralph Macchio and went to his home on Long Island. He was not happy about that! But he did take a photo with me and sign my VHS tape if I promised never to come back.

“Best Wishes! - Ralph Macchio ‘01”

I started doing karate, taekwondo and kung fu in high school and college, and so always had a strong interest in Asia, and Japan in particular. When I arrived in Japan, I was surprised to learn karate is just as dorky here as it is in the U.S. So, I hung up my gi and took up rock climbing instead.

Still, I fell in love with Japan and decided to stay. I started working as a freelance journalist, but it wasn’t sustainable. I ran through my savings and had to ration myself to a single daily visit to the convenience store for food.

I landed a job as a reporter at Bloomberg just in the nick of time. I remember they apologized for the “low” salary offer of $50k, not knowing I would have said “yes” if they offered me a day-old taco.

Bloomberg exposed me to investing. Your readers already know that investing is the most fascinating, endlessly-permutating puzzle out there. I was hooked.

At some point, I realized I was not getting any closer to writing for The New Yorker. And anyways, finance had become more interesting. When I grumbled about my situation to a friend at Morgan Stanley, he offered me a job. I became a product manager, where I used my experience as a journalist to help analysts write reports that stand out in a crowded field.

Morgan Stanley was the platonic ideal of a company: intelligent, high-quality people working in cooperation towards a common goal, and having a lot of fun along the way. I couldn’t have asked for a better environment.

However, as I studied Graham, Buffett and others, my goal changed to becoming part of the decision-making on the buy side, rather than the advisory side. That meant I first needed to learn how to be an analyst.

I’d met the head of research at J.P. Morgan during my journalism days, and when I reached out, he offered me a job as his junior analyst. I covered macro strategy and small cap research.

Ironically, my years doing macro strategy helped cure me of trying to predict the macro; there are too many moving parts for the human mind to comprehend, in my view.

Small cap stocks were the polar opposite. They are easy to understand, and the likelihood of mispricing is inversely proportional to the number of eyeballs on the companies. Japan is blessed with nearly 3000 listed small caps to choose from.

The day after my mentor quit J.P. Morgan, I received an email from the founder of Varecs Partners, whom I had met a few months earlier. I joined Varecs, a value-oriented boutique fund influenced by First Eagle and Buffett, as an analyst in 2015.

I spent the next 10 years honing my skills researching overlooked Japanese companies. Being an analyst is nearly identical to being a journalist, with just a bit more math.

We had a lot of fun at Varecs digging up hidden gems. However, I left at the end of 2025 to pursue my dream of becoming a fund manager.

Maybe it is worth noting for some of your younger readers, I have not formally interviewed for a job in 20 years. My network of friends and colleagues have been the source of every new opportunity.

One of the best things you can do for your career is to be a team player, help others, and make friends. I had a strong competitive drive when I started out, a vestige of my Western upbringing. But I have found you are better off trying to be helpful than trying to come out on top.

You will be shocked by how coworkers and others you meet when you are young start to rise to positions of influence. If you treated them well, they may lend you a hand later on. Your former intern may become a CEO or a country head. I’ve seen it happen many times.

Can you provide readers with a brief overview of the Hosomichi Fund?

The Hosomichi Fund is in pre-launch phase and expected to start in September. I am partnered with the excellent folks at TriVista Capital in Tokyo and will launch under their umbrella. This setup frees me to focus the maximum amount of time on running the fund, and minimal time on operations.

The strategy is small cap, constructivist and focused primarily on people. We eschew the typical screening approach. We believe that the quality and drive of the people running the company, combined with the culture they create, ultimately determines your return.

The industry and “moat” are secondary, in my opinion. I am skeptical of the very concept of “moats” as distinct from the people working at the company.

Outsized returns are hard to come by, but I am focused on 2 winning patterns I have identified:

Source: TriVista Capital

Exceptional returns can be found investing in both the lowest and highest quality management teams.

Companies managed by lower quality teams trade at depressed multiples. Intervention by an engaged shareholder can catalyze improved performance on multiple fronts: balance sheet management, employee motivation, sales growth and innovation.

That can result in a significant re-rating. Of course, most management teams are not enthused about breaking with old patterns. We always approach the company in a friendly manner, but friendship is a two-way street. At the end of the day, we will take measures to safeguard investor capital.

Meanwhile, the highest quality management teams also tend to be structurally undervalued, even if they trade at comparable multiples to peers. The best managers will grow faster, attract better talent, and treat shareholders better than rivals.

They thus deserve to trade at a premium. While such managers are exceptional operators, in Japan they tend to be somewhat ignorant of capital markets. Our approach is to work with these companies to set ambitious financial goals, devise M&A strategy, and help tell their story to investors.

What two stocks are you sharing with readers today?

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Latest interviews with fund managers/investors sharing their best ideas…

#133 - Lee Roach (The Value Road) 📗

#132 - Anthony Fruci (Halvio Capital) 📗

#131 - Wengang Ji (Trigram Partners) 📗

BEST IDEA AWARD FOR THIS ISSUE 🏆

JII Compounders on Temairazu 🇯🇵

Temairazu provides software used by hotels and ryokan to manage room inventory and prices across multiple booking channels from one screen. Those channels include online travel agencies such as Rakuten Travel, Jalan, and Booking.com, as well as the property's own website.

The product matters because it sits inside the hotel's daily sales process. Once a property uses TEMAIRAZU to manage many booking channels, switching systems would create operational risk. That keeps churn low and lets new customer additions build on the existing revenue base.

Buybacks are running out of room; the next step could be a special dividend with up to a 20% yield.

A round-up of the best ‘fresh-off-the-press’ stock pitches…

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