Interview #66 : Dede Eyesan (Jenga IP)

Searching for the world for outperformers

For this issue we have the pleasure of interviewing Dede Eyesan, founder and portfolio manager of Jenga Investment Partners based in London, UK.

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Read the last two interviews with Daniel Brandon (Atai Capital) and Wayne Jones (Ganes Focused Value Fund).

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

Can you please tell readers a little more about your background, how you got involved in investing?

Thanks for having me for the interview. I made my first investments at 10. While living in Nigeria, my dad encouraged my siblings and I to invest in stocks and in the middle of the Guardian newspaper, there was a list of all 150+ listed Nigerian companies. I could only recognise three companies, Nestle Nigeria (they made my favourite hot chocolate brand), Seven up bottling and First Bank Nigeria. 

I picked these three and five years later, Seven Up Nigeria and Nestle Nigeria had both appreciated by around 500% while First Bank Nigeria shares declined by half. I wanted to understand their performance divergence and I then understood the importance of financial statements and what a balance sheet meant. 

Nestle Nigeria and Seven Up Nigeria had tripled and quadrupled their earnings, respectively, while priced at 9x P/E in 2009 when I invested. First Bank Nigeria, on the other hand, saw its net income fall by half between 2010 and 2015. 

This was my introduction to the world of investing and the importance of fundamentals. This experience formed the basis of my investment process, looking for companies that can grow earnings at cheap prices.