Re: OT mostly: forevers

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If you like unkillability, you probably can’t do much better than Sir Christopher Hohn’s portfolio holdings at TCI Fund Management Ltd (The Children’s Investment Fund). He loves “opolies” of all sorts (mon, du, and olig).

Following up on this thread, the FT recently conducted “a rare, in-depth series of interviews” of Hohn, lasting more than 6 hours; here’s the archived link (no paywall):

How Chris Hohn built the world’s most profitable hedge fund
https://archive.ph/FBykw

A few nuggets:

• Where other hedge funds of a similar size spread wagers across thousands of investments, Hohn has built his record of success on a series of colossal multibillion-dollar bets, currently managing roughly $77bn in only 15 positions globally…. Buffett, whom Hohn speaks to often, tells the FT his record is “exceptional”.

• Like Buffett, Hohn focuses on big companies with powerful moats that help them stave off competitors. He also holds his positions for an average of nine years, a timeline more akin to a private equity firm than a trader. But unlike Buffett, Hohn spurns a whole host of industries, including banks, utilities, media and insurers….Hohn says there are perhaps just over 200 companies in the world that are investable and, because of the uncertainties fomented by AI and climate change, that figure is decreasing.

• For Hohn, the key metric for any company is pricing power, highly valuing the ability to push through inflation-busting price increases. He is not dazzled by stratospheric revenue growth like other investors.

• Former employees say Hohn does not get emotionally attached to stocks, no matter how many years he has remained invested, giving him the flexibility to sell at a moment’s notice if he thinks the thesis has changed.

• “I learnt over the last 20 years that you are better off to find a great company which is well managed and well governed than try to find a bad company and change the management or sell the company,” Hohn says.

• On rating agencies, he says, the real investment is in trust. “Investors have to trust [a rating], issuers have to trust it, regulators have to trust it. All this debt is held by insurance, pension and banks and you need a single source of trust.”…“Buffett told me [about Moody’s]: if the financial crisis didn’t kill it, nothing will,” says Hohn. “He made me pledge that if we ever sold our shares in Moody’s we would sell to each other.”

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