For this issue we had the pleasure of interviewing Javier Pérez Álvarez, the Founder of Edelweiss Capital Research.
Javier also currently leads a small team of analysts at a Swiss family office.
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Read the last interview with Wayne Jones of Ganes Focused Value Fund.
Our next interview is being published on Tuesday.
Hi Javier, thanks so much for taking the time out to do this interview.
Can you please tell readers a little more about your background, how did you get involved in investing?
It's a pleasure, Jon. I could say that my background is somewhat of an outsider in the world of investing. I am an aeronautical engineer by training and began investing after saving some money while working for Airbus as an expat in France.
Before that, during my university days, I was interested in the stock market and did some things, but nothing really worth mentioning.
After nearly a decade working on the development of various aircraft and dabbling in startups, I decided to go all in. I left my job, and pursued my passion.
During this entire time, I had been reading and learning in a completely self-taught manner, and obviously making all the mistakes that come with it.
So I quitted, I completed CFA Level I, started a small M&A boutique with other partners in Spain, and finally, about a year ago, I joined a Swiss family office where I now lead a small team of analysts.
I really enjoy reading your substack. What is Edelweiss Capital Research?
Glad to hear it. When I decided to launch Edelweiss, it was simply a way for me to order my thoughts on different topics I find intriguing and to further clarify my decision-making process, but also kind of a marketing/personal brand tool.
Edelweiss Capital Research is a weekly newsletter where I discuss various topics related to investing. Substack is full of investment theses, and this is great! But I aimed to discuss other aspects that I found more important.
Topics like the fundamentals of value creation by companies, how to assess and evaluate a company's acquisitions, reflecting on management team incentive systems, and so on.
All of this is combined with reviews of the books I read, some comments on different companies. A hotchpotch of topics I want to dig in.
I obviously don't publish anything directly related to what we're looking at in the office, at least not about small-mid caps in which we might take a position at some point.