원문 보기
Bill lman a renowned activist investor with a distinct approach with a career spanning over decades he's known for his Hands-On involvement in company strategies aiming to drive positive change and value creation so you are what's called an activist investor not a macro investor an activist investor typically invests in companies or makes specific bets on companies Direction up or down and so forth how did you get into being an activist investor as opposed to let's say a value investor a macro investor was it something you decided to do while you were in college or early in your professional career what led you into that route I I think it's part of my personality you know I I started as an investor I raised the first pool of capital when I was 26 uh and I made an early investment in a company called Rockefeller Center properties and I saw management making a series of decisions that made no sense to me it was just so obvious the right thing to do as to how to create value and it was being a frustrated passive investor that made me into an active investor and you know that investment turned into a very profitable and very high-profile investment and with success uh you know one is motivated to to try it again and uh it's been helpful to the strategy over a very long period of time and it's fun and uh if you're passive you can feel like the Market's py and if you're active you can actually create some value and I think it's a lot more interesting than just picking Securities you know we we bought a stake in Chipotle at a time where the company was struggling a few years ago we put a few directors on the board we recruited a new CEO named Brian nickel it's completely turned around the company the stock is you know almost tripled in the midst of a crisis uh and it just tells you that you know that's a lot more fun and it's a lot more profitable and I would say bet good for a lot more good for America than just simply being a passer stock picker Bill Amman highlights how his journey into becoming an activist investor was influenced by his personality and experiences frustration with passive investing led him to become an active investor driven by a desire to create value and influence company decisions he points out that active investing allows for greater engagement and impact as seen in his successful involvement with companies like Rockefeller Center properties and chipotle Amman emphasizes that being an activist investor is both enjoyable and rewarding offering more than traditional stock picking now let's talk about for a moment um some of the campaigns you've done as activist some of them have worked out some have not uh chipot has seem to have worked out but you did a couple that were difficult ones so Herbal Life or Valiant um they didn't work out what would you say is the mistake you made in hindsight and that you're would try to avoid in the future sure so there's sort of eight principles that have driven our investment success and when we have veered from those eight principles uh we've lost money and uh after the uh 20 th we went through a very difficult period Circa 2015 2016 the two Investments you mentioned were big drivers of that it was a you know if you will experience is making mistakes and learning from them and it was a moment of reflection for the firm and I went back to the core principles that have driven our success for the first 12 years and I had a member of the investment team literally engrave them in a stone tablet not dissimilar from Moses's Ten Commandments and I had that stone tablet put in a what you might call A Deal toy sits on everyone's desk in the office and uh We've adhered to those principles you know ever since and you know we've been fortunate uh to return return to the success we had for the first dozen years so I think it's about keeping to our principles are basically want invest in simple predictable free cash flow generative dominant companies with large barriers to entry that ear in high Returns on Capital that have limited exposure to extrinsic risk we can't control strong balance sheets don't need access to Capital to survive have excellent management good governance sounds logical um but you know occasionally we've diverged and there's uh those times you know there's a certain discipline that comes with Investments and there always seems to be a counterveiling quality that caused us to diverge but in really each case we've compromised on business quality or complexity we've been harmed from an investment standpoint in the dynamic world of investing Bill Amman stands out as a proactive Force his focus on core principles and active engagement has yielded both successes and lessons showcasing the power of strategic activism and shaping the corporate landscape
Comments 0