Giverny Capital and / or François Rochon - General News

[John Hjorth]

Over the years, Giverny Capital and  / or François Rochon has been brought up for discussion here on CoBF several times related to interviews etc.

 

Here, I'm taking the initiative to start a separate topic about all kind of news related to Giverny Capital and / or Mr. Rochon, because I think we miss such topic here on CoBF here in the General Discussion forum.

 

Mr. Rochon [or Giverny Capital, for that sake] hasen't been mentioned a lot here on CoBF, but it has happened now and then.

 

Personally, I like a lot that he doesen't appear self-promotional, and his track record is to me really impressive.

 

In my personal opinion, we should talk and discuss more about non-promotional & humble money managers with good track records and their doings, than about self-promotional money managers with mediocre and louzy track records.

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

For starters :

 

Giverny Capital - Annual Letter 2023.

[Luke]

I like him, too, regularly check his filings to source ideas!

[KCLarkin]

There is a book about him. Sadly, it is in French and I haven't seen any news of an English translation. And I can't read French so I don't know if it is worthwhile:

 

https://www.amazon.ca/François-parcours-singulier-investisseur-dexception-ebook/dp/B0BQ592XNC?ref_=ast_author_dp

 

 

[Spekulatius]

@KCLarkin @Luca I agree. With non- promotional managers, there isn’t much to talk about. What you can do is check their portfolio. Governed capital has some compounders in them that are less talks ed bout like AME, KEYS, FI. MEDP. I wish I had paid more attention to MEDP when it sold off, for example. With the Motley Fool Jim Gillies has been pounding the table for them, and yet I ignored it.

I think Giverney has a great hand selecting stocks and they don’t change their portfolio too often, so the signal/ noise ratio is pretty good if you track them.

[formthirteen]

Here's a talk he gave at Google:

 

[John Hjorth]

Thanks for the posts in this topic so far.

 

And especially thank you to @KCLarkin for bringning the existence of the book about Mr. Rochon to my attention, I was personally not aware of its existense.

 

Amazon : François Rochon - Le parcours singulier d'un investisseur d'exce Paperback – Jan. 31 2023 .

Edited March 27, 2024 by John Hjorth

[samwise]

I've begun to follow their holdings. One of them (Five Below) has fallen to attractive levels, and I started a thread on it with more details on the investment thesis.

https://thecobf.com/forum/topic/20723-five-five-below/#comment-564425

[Charlie]

Giverny Capital 2024 Annual Letter

 

https://givernycapital.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/giverny-capital-annual-letter-2024.pdf

 

 

Cheers!

[thowed]

@Charlie Thank you!  Always enjoy his letters, but when it's an Annual, it's easy to forget to check for them.

[formthirteen]

Quote

Last year also marked the election of a new President of the United States, Donald John Trump. We
have always refrained from making comments that are political in nature since the founding of Giverny.
We’ve discussed this many times in the past, but it’s worth repeating: we believe it is a mistake for an
investor to be distracted by what’s going on in politics. Our job is to judiciously select companies with
the aim of being shareholders over the very long term; and if these companies increase their intrinsic
value at above-average rates, their stock prices should eventually follow the same trajectory (provided
they have been acquired at reasonable prices, of course). We have often held securities for more than
10 years, which is a period longer than the majority of political mandates in various Western
governments. It’s vital to always keep this in mind.

 

Great letter. I agree, facts are not politics.

[Charlie]

The annual letter 2025 is out:

 

https://givernycapital.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/giverny-capital-annual-letter-2025-1.pdf

 

 

Cheers!

Edited March 13 by Charlie

[Milu]

4 hours ago, Charlie said:

The annual letter 2025 is out:

 

https://givernycapital.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/giverny-capital-annual-letter-2025-1.pdf

 

 

Cheers!

Thanks, always enjoy reading his letters. A simple no nonsense investor who has done well over multiple decades. 

[Parsad]

3 hours ago, Milu said:

Thanks, always enjoy reading his letters. A simple no nonsense investor who has done well over multiple decades. 

 

Yes...one of the best track records in Canada.  Wonderful letter!  Cheers!

[MungerWunger]

Giverny new interview: 

 

 

 

[Lotsofcoke]

On 3/20/2026 at 9:21 AM, MungerWunger said:

Giverny new interview: 

 

 

 

sweet. I see Giverny's team has expanded significantly.  So happy for Francois and his team. Francois is a class act. Always has been. Same guy he was over 20 years ago. And nice to see J.P> Bouchard is still there... I can't believe he has silver in his hair...  I met him when he was just a youngster at Giverny. He's a sharp guy. Great sense of humour. I am not at all shocked by their continued success. Bravo Giverny. 

Edited March 21 by Lotsofcoke
add

[investmd]

Agree. V. solid long term record of compounding at approximately 13%. Rochon has slowly and consistently built a great firm over a long period of time without much uproar.  Fee structure is also fair - no performance fee - charges 1% management fee. 

 

2025 Letter shows:

• the Global Portfolio has underperformed a blended index (not just S&P500) in 3 of the past 5 years and 5 of the past 10yrs
• The US Portfolio has underperformed the S&P500 in 4 of the past 5 years and in 8 of the past 10 years 

IMO, why Giverny may outperform the indexes over the next decade include: 

• reversion to mean of earnings growth and price to equity ratio of a hyper concentrated S&P500
• over the years, Giverny has expanded its team of money managers hunting for the optimal additions to the portfolio - Rochon is clearly the portfolio manager, but JP, David Poppe and Patrick Leger have added bench strength
• The thought process of acquiring truly great companies - Rochon talks of curating a museum - with a margin of safety is consistent. 

 

I've been in the fund for past few years (generally underperformed the S&P), but given the downtrend in 2026, thinking this might be a good time to add. Anyone have constructive ideas why it might not be a good time to get into Giverny? 

 

[Marco Van Basten]

@investmd, How has Rochon performed versus S&P over the last 5, 10, 15 and 20 and 25 years?  What has driven his performance?  Why do you think that there will be a reversion to the mean in earnings growth and multiples in the S&P?  If Mr Rochon talks about creating a museum of great companies, then why isn't Moody/SPGI in his museum, or GE/Safran in it, or Sartorius Stadim Biotech?  or VMC/MLM?  May be I missed it, but is Fairfax one of his positions?  If not, why not?  To be clear, I don't know much about Mr Rochon, and he seems like a thoughtful person, but I don't buy into the notion of mean reversion.  Mean reversion assumes perfect competition, and many sectors seem to be immune from new entrants and are oligopolies as it is - MLM/VMC, SPGI/MCO, et all

[John Hjorth]

1 hour ago, investmd said:

• ...
• The thought process of acquiring truly great companies - Rochon talks of curating a museum - with a margin of safety is consistent. 

...

 

1 hour ago, Marco Van Basten said:

... Mr Rochon talks about creating a museum of great companies, then why ... 

 

HaHa!  - I simply can't stop laughing! To me, you are mixing up two separate things here, @Marco Van Basten.

[investmd]

@Marco Van Basten the reference to mean reversion was in refernce to performance of S&P500 over next decade as opposed to performance of Giverny Fund. I think earnings of portfolio companies with the Fund have continued to compound at an average of 13%/yr.