roark1211

We are seeing a lot of this in Europe at the moment. With 10 year sovereign bond yields hoovering around 1-2%, companies are loading up medium-term debts (5-7 years) at less than 1% to do acquisitions; hence, almost anything they can buy these days will be immediate EPS-accretive. Private-market deals are now happening at double-digit EV/EBITDA multiples, especially with assets that have bond-like characteristics, like infrastructures, utilities. Most recently, Vinci (DG FP) - the largest infrastructure operator in Europe, has talked about buying Aeroport de Paris (ADP FP), at almost 18x EV/EBITDA. We are having an internal debate on this. These deals, by traditional metrics, are super expensive, but they also boost EPS immediately, thanks to the simple interest rate arbitrage. It would be great to hear your thought on this.

Truly amazing indeed, this stuff only happens in the groupie's wet dreams. On the other hand, I somehow feel a touch sad and can't help make the link between this publication and WEB and CM's tiredness at the AGM this year. I truly, truly hope I'm wrong.

Thanks everyone for your input, I really appreciate that. I've tried to follow Li Lu for quite sometime but information is pretty scarce as you said. Once in a while, I get lucky and find a speed he gave to MBA students or an interview he did with Graham & Doddsville, but they are mostly on his general investing philosophy and how he made it coming from Communist China. But I will keep trying!

Thanks a lot for your recommendations. Yes, I am looking to do PE deals indeed. As part of my job, I will be looking into South East Asian markets where private equity is typically the most practical way to invest. My background and experience is purely public equity in developed markets so this is quite an exciting challenge for me.

Hi guys, Do you have any recommendation for good books on Private Equity? I'm looking for a "how-to" guide but also very interested in any other decent books on the topic. Thanks a lot! PS: I was wondering whether I should post this in "Books" forum but it seems that one is more for members to review books that they have read.

You're absolutely spot on about the model at Orbis. They have one PM for each of the fund they run (Global, Japan, EM, International) and a "General PM" - William Gray who is also the son of the founder of Orbis (Allan Gray). Some might not like this, but it is what it is, and it has worked for them. Those PMs are all lifers at Orbis, so almost no one else made it to "PM" in the traditional definition for the last decade or so. The turnover in the analyst population (<5 years) is very high indeed, that's because of their cut-throat culture: you either make 10% alpha or you're out.

They post their top holdings here: https://www.orbis.com/uk/institutional/strategies/global-equity I am a client so I receive a monthly report with the details, but I know for a fact that they used to publish a monthly factsheet showing all the holdings, or at least the top 10. They have just completely revamped their website, logo, presentation etc. so frankly I also feel a bit lost navigating their website now.

Orbis is a great place to learn how to do investing. They are all Buffett fans at the core but also pragmatic enough to understand the attraction of growth stocks, that's why they have been outperforming while many other "value shops" struggled in the past few years. The culture is super meritocratic, you either make 10% alpha or you're out. They publish their holdings on a monthly basis so you can pretty much see everything they do. They are definitely not a "me-too" shop. Southeastern Asset Management - the performance has been pretty poor to say the least. For the past 10 years, you'd be much better off buying the S&P.