Interview #68 : Daniel Gladiš (Vltava Fund)
A portfolio currently valued at less than 10 times earnings
For this issue we had the pleasure of interviewing Daniel Gladiš, Founder and Portfolio Manager of Vltava Fund.
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Read the last two interviews with Marc and Daniel (Gehlen Bräutigam Capital) and Dede Eyesan (Jenga Investment Partners)
Hi Daniel, 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?
Thirty years ago, a few years after we got rid of communism in the Czech Republic and the capital markets were established here, two friends and I started a brokerage firm.
I was in charge of foreign institutional clients. These included names like Baupost and GMO.
As I visited them and listened intently to them talking about investments around the world, I realized I would much rather be on the other side of the phone. Not the one who offers services to the asset managers, but the one who directly makes investments.
So after a few years, I sold my stake in my brokerage firm and moved directly into investing.
In 2004, we started Vltava Fund. It is said to be the oldest hedge fund in the region.
What is the investment philosophy behind Vltava Fund?
We try to keep things as simple as possible. We see individual companies as living entities in which people create value through their work and deliver high returns on the capital that is invested in the company.
The companies we like most are those where the human factor is high and where capital accumulates at a rapid rate.