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Baupost's 13F


Evolveus

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Isn't that more or less true of any of his stock picks?

 

SK can do whatever he wants obviously --- it has no bearing on what I invest in.

 

Having said that -- I don't mind seeing well respected investors buying into companies I own. It might be (further) evidence that my ownership has some merit!

 

Agree --- GOOG and FB were a lot cheaper a few weeks back.

 

 

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Isn't that more or less true of any of his stock picks?

 

SK can do whatever he wants obviously --- it has no bearing on what I invest in.

 

Having said that -- I don't mind seeing well respected investors buying into companies I own. It might be (further) evidence that my ownership has some merit!

 

Agree --- GOOG and FB were a lot cheaper a few weeks back.

 

Yes, it is true of all his stock picks. I just felt the need to contextualize it (perhaps unnecessarily). he probably bought GOOG/FB in the face of collapsing ad spend because the EV of those companies also collapsed and maybe an analyst there does some of the usual ex Waymo ex YouTube ex Cash ex other bets math that folks do to get to very fair prices for world class business. I added to my GOOG/FB on the way down even threw in some CRM in minuscule size. I’ve really struggled to hold onto them though. Fundamentals are just as bad and the EV went right back up

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I've posted this elsewhere, but IIRC, someone else runs the public equities portfolio these days. I think Klarman focuses on private stuff, credit, and real estate.

 

Brian Spector used to manage their public equities, but he left several years after after pulling the trigger on energy stocks way too early around the time of the 2014 - 2015 oil crash. Agree with Borgesian that Jim Mooney apparently runs it now.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/brian-spector-leaving-baupost-letter-2015-11

 

I don't have any particular insight in to Baupost's internal workings, but it seems to operate much more like an absolute return fund than like a traditional long only fund. Like you said, plenty of hedging, distressed debt, investments into private companies, credit, real estate, capital structure arb, and (famously) almost always a large cash position.

 

I also think the theses for many of their equity positions are quite complex, which is why Pabrai once said that he was never able to clone any of their ideas. Very common to see them involved in complex special situations like the three company Colony Capital merger transaction a few years ago. Ditto for PG&E, ViacomCBS, and 21st Century Fox more recently. Also spin offs like Liberty Braves.

 

Some their equity positions appear to be based on top-down type macro calls. Clearly they were bullish on LNG and oil prices a few years ago. I also think some of the developmental stage mining equities Baupost used to own (still owns?) were partially plays on inflation / commodity prices going way up.

 

Finally, they must have some in-house biotech expertise, because they own developmental stage biotechs. I think the logic here is probably akin to "Maybe it's worth zero, but if it's not worth zero then it may be worth 10x current stock price in a few years"

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I don't have any particular insight in to Baupost's internal workings, but it seems to operate much more like an absolute return fund than like a traditional long only fund.

 

that's correct. people put them in the "absolute return" allocation.

 

I just googled "baupost" and "absolute return" and found this:

https://finance.uw.edu/treasury/investment-managers-as-of-June-30-2009

 

It's old, but its consistent with the idea of them being much more of a "other stuff" manager than a pure equity manager when you look at how a Baupost investor categorizes them and their peers. Again, I think most know that, but (perhaps unnecessarily) providing context.

 

Absolute Return

Adamas Partners, LLC

Angelo Gordon & Company, LP

Baupost Group, LLC

BlackRock Financial Management, Inc. (Quellos)

CarVal Investors

Centerbridge Capital Partners

Highfields Capital Management, LP

Morgan Stanley

Oaktree Capital Management, LLC

Rimrock Capital Management, LLC

Satellite Asset Management, LP

Standard Investment Research

Tiger Asia Management, LLC

Varde Partners, Inc

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It's clear there's a secular shift to online marketing and google and facebook dominate that space with youtube, google ads and instagram.  Ad spend may be temporarily down this year and next but these guys will only take marketshare for the next 10 years (future cash flows after the first two years matter WAY more anyways) so not buying it cause of "valuation" is the same argument you could've made about Amazon and look how that story turned out.

 

Bill miller also got the memo on Google.

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It's clear there's a secular shift to online marketing and google and facebook dominate that space with youtube, google ads and instagram.  Ad spend may be temporarily down this year and next but these guys will only take marketshare for the next 10 years (future cash flows after the first two years matter WAY more anyways) so not buying it cause of "valuation" is the same argument you could've made about Amazon and look how that story turned out.

 

Bill miller also got the memo on Google.

 

Who doesn't already know that?

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  • 2 months later...

Baupost has (for some time) reportedly been involved in a complex deal to:

 

(1) acquire (or gain control of) the Downtown Las Vegas facility known as "Cashman Field" with the idea that the 62 acre plot could be redeveloped into a new soccer stadium + some ancillary stuff

 

(2) acquire the "Las Vegas Lights FC" and convert it to a Major League Soccer (MLS) expansion team

 

https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/las-vegas/las-vegas-expects-soccer-stadium-deal-to-move-mls-pursuit-forward-1946892/

 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/major-league-soccer/story/3865428/las-vegas-mls-plan-includes-indoor-stadium

 

Klarman also owns personal interests in the Fenway Sports Group and a horse racing outfit. Seems like he is bullish on sports. 

 

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