Dear Readers,
It has been a very busy 10 days and I am not even done editing all of my notes yet. However, after 24 pages of Berkshire annual meeting notes, I am now posting over 70 pages of notes from this past week's Value Investing Congress in Pasadena. Unlike the BRK meeting notes, these are in bullet point form because there are far too many data points and the speakers often move too fast for me to type the notes in paragraph form. These were taken in real time and I apologize for any errors or omissions. In any case, I think they provide a very comprehensive summary of what was discussed at the event.
For those of you who do not have the time to go through all of the notes, I have highlighted the companies that were pitched and discussed. I also included tickers and stock charts for most of the companies that were extensively analyzed. I think there were a number of compelling ideas pitched and I will briefly highlight a few that stood out in my mind as deserving some more research:
- Guy Gottfried of Rational Investment Group pitched Morguard Corp (TSE: MRC), a Toronto-listed real estate company that is run by a great investor and whose stock looks to be trading a fraction of the value of its real estate properties. Not to take anything away from the other great speakers, but I think Guy made the best presentation.
- Ori Eyal of Emerging Value Capital Management discussed a share arbitrage opportunity with PRISA (NYSE: PRIS) A and B shares. His compelling analysis made it seem unlikely that an investor could lose money and very likely that there would be significant upside in the next 6 months.
Aside from those two, there were also a number of interesting international and domestic stocks and other securities discussed. Some of you may notice that a few of the speakers have started their funds very recently and do not have long track records. As such, some people I spoke to voiced their concerns that it is hard to know if these guys are truly great investors. However, I have noticed that the young guys who run their own funds perform some of the most comprehensive and thoughtful research of any investors I know. As such, I highly recommend reading through the notes to see if anything piques your interest.
Also, if you like what you see in the notes, I suggest signing up to attend the next Value Investing Congress. The event will be held in New York on October 17th and 18th and the organizers are offering a very attractive early bird special for those who can commit to attending early. Please visit http://www.valueinvestingcongress.com/register/ if you would like to take part. I cannot promise that I will be there so there may not be much in terms of notes published in the blogosphere.
As always, I am unable to attach a PDF of the notes to this posting. However, I have created a Google Doc that anyone who clicks this link can access. Also, I have embedded the Scribd copy of the notes below. If neither of those works for you, feel free to send me an email at inoculatedinvestor@gmail.com and I will send you a PDF copy.
I hope you enjoy the notes. I appreciate all of the emails and offers to help me in my job search that I have received. I am looking forward to hearing more from all of you in the future.
Sincerely,
Ben Claremon
UCLA Anderson 2011
The Inoculated Investor
*****Update: The Scribd document attached is the correct one. My apologies, for a little while last night (between 2am and 8am LA time) a not-complete version was available on Scribd. I am sorry if anyone downloaded a non-polished copy and would be happy to send you an updated PDF version if you email me.
2011 Value Investing Congress Notes
