I am excited to share the Parthenos Investment Partnership’s Q1 letter here:
I discuss some of our top holdings and exited positions in a busy first quarter:
$WOSG.L $PSH.L $BUR $GOGO $RICK $MRL.L $AWE.L
One of my favourite things to do is read emerging fund managers (<50m AUM) quarterly letters to find new names and see their approach. Often some gems when people just starting out and have a lot to prove, who are the people I have to follow and check out?
What is your favourite current long idea which:
- is trading at less than 20x normalised earnings
- has a clear path to grow fcf/share 15% a year for next 5 years
- has a catalyst for this value to be realised over next 12/18 months
Can anyone explain how
@ChrisBloomstran
fund has $480m AUM still? 30% of the portfolio in BRK and largely owns legacy assets that have structurally underperformed, incredible people pay fees for this
Encouraging and pleasing results from $WOSG today, as of this morning the position now makes up just shy of 28% of the partnership’s assets. Excited to see the continued positive developments despite the tough environment
@eboroian
Some I think have thrown off good ideas recently - Matan Capital Management, Jackson Peak Capital, Alta Fox, ADW, Okeefe Stevens, Atari Capital. Not all emerging but good letters nonetheless
More encouraging news from $WOSG today with an even clearer path to strong forward returns from here - now makes up just shy of 30% of the partnership’s assets and we don’t intend to sell a share.
Mines $WOSG - trades at < 6x FCF, 8% organic growth in US luxury watch market plus huge growth runway with 100m p.a deployed at 25%+ ROCE for exp capex into new stores/acquisitions (should get to roughly 15% growth), market realises bucherer fears overblown plus return to growth
1927-2009 small cap (growth + value) outperformed large by ~400bps
2010-2024 large cap outperformed small by ~600bps.
If my sister asked me where to put her money for next 10yrs I would tell her Russell 2000 over S&P. 83 years in favour of small and mean reversion is coming.
Having just joined twitter, I am excited to publish the Parthenos Investment Partnership 2023 Annual Letter publicly for the first time:
We discuss some of our top holdings:
$PSH.L $AWE.L $ATG.L $WOSG.L $RICK $MRL.L
Had a few messages about lease cost accounting at $WOSG - their FCF is post all rental costs as shown in the bridge here so that is the ‘true fcf’. If you argue expansionary capex at 25%+ ROCE should be stripped out then your investment horizon is either a week or you’re an idiot
@Aksel465
@Billhuang1223
I don’t think you have understood their financials correctly - here is their bridge to FCF. All lease costs included and the 145m is after this - this has been confirmed as correct by WOSG director of finance.
Every time i reread the 1970s/80s $BRK letters I am constantly astounded at Buffetts ability to convey complicated themes in the simplest of ways. It is not an understatement to say that his writing and communication is a masterpiece that should be studied for centuries…
Days like today convince me even more than time horizon is now an investors biggest edge - market down 1% and i’ve seen some of the craziest theories about why. If you are happy to own good businesses for a long period of time, who cares?
For those saying $BUR will be taking an 80/90% haircut on the argentina debt, this was an interesting snippet management included in their shareholder letter…
A well thought out response from Jordan to a valid comment raised on SZ on distributable cash flow to shareholders. Maintenance capex is tiny at ~5 compared to growth capex of ~68m, there is a long runway for growth now but lots of this FCF could go to shareholders in the future
Seen few emerging fund managers (won’t name names) who have a period of great returns then feel the need to go activist/change process to make a name for themself - often leads to more AUM but lower forward returns. No. 1 job is to keep process simple and keep compounding
We have initiated a 7% position in $GOGO. Firmly believe the secular tailwinds over next 10yrs will show a meaningful inflection in the biz and competitor fears are overblown
Most people think in days/weeks, $WOSG relationship has been in place for over a century. Was the same when your grandad was a kid, through world wars, globalisation shifts and the dotcom era. Fred,19 in his basement thinks Rolex is going DTC and he has top-ticked the 100yr chart
@ClarkSquareCap
$BUR market leader in litigation finance, compounder for 15 years and just won YPF case where expect payout is 2x the size of the entire market capitalisation
@impassinvestor
This is a huge call option that an investor in $WOSG today gets for absolutely free, may or may not happen but a lot of upside if it does
What do you think 10 year CAGR on S&P 500 is from these levels, 4% maybe? Beginning to think we may see a decade of large caps rangebound - still plenty of opportunity in SMID caps
$WOSG.L now trades at less than 7x depressed free cash flow with one of the largest moats I have ever seen. We have increased our stake by 50% this morning and it is now our second largest holding
@variantview_X
Thesis for our partners in my annual letter pinned on my profile and other notes which haven’t shared publicly. In short: bucherer fears overblown, min HSD compounder with huge moat and resistant biz trading like going bankrupt. Don’t need much to go right for stock to do well
Roaring Kitty has potentially gone from virtually nothing to $500m+ from $GME in a little over 3 years…are there any other examples in history of an individual doing this so quickly solely from investing/speculating?
We have initiated a new 9% position in Burford Capital. $BUR is led by a credible management team with shareholder alignment whilst trading at an extremely reasonable valuation despite their sustained growth over the last 15 years. We believe there are multiple ways to win (1/2)
@YankyBanash
First 3 yrs I used a lot of leverage and spent a lot of time on macro due to the environment - ‘growth at distressed prices’ strategy became fully formed in 2022 and since then have used very little leverage and much happier with the sustainability of that given positions we hold
@InvestRoiss
@Tintincapital
That is reasonable, don’t want the asia exposure and I think US market has multi-year secular growth in watches. US market only 1.8x the size of UK market despite having over 5x population. Growing significantly faster and WOSG best positioned to take advantage of this tailwind
@andrewcoye
Not too concerned about if guidance shows sales growth of 2% or 7% next year, people will continue to purchase more rolexes in the future and WOSG will continue to grow footprint. Rolex increasing capacity may also be huge tailwind. Only risk is Rolex pulling the plug (<1%)
@ReturnsJourney
Almost everyone (myself included) overestimates how quickly a catalyst will change a business so by framing the q at 18months you get a truer reflection of what it looks like in 3y, at least in my opinion.
@andrewcoye
No.1 thing i’m watching is if Rolex limit WOSG market share in US in favour of Bucherer and change allocations (from all my discussions within the industry this is < 1% chance of happening but being priced in at > 70% chance), everything else is noise
@DeepMoatSociety
We have held since 2020, I like the portfolio composition and proven downside protection in turbulent times. Plus we bought this at 30% discount to NAV so happy for them to keep buying shares back and expect a liquidity event at some point (not soon) to realise this value
@kab604
@RegSnowdon
100%, I think there is a <1% chance that they do want to go DTC but in the event they did it would make far more sense to buy WOSG and leverage their network in the UK & US than try to build out their own in an area they’re unfamiliar with
@gregisenberg
No real stats on this yet as it’s dystopian but I would guess that this is an extremely small cohort of the population who would pay for a service like this - a much smaller market than the dating app market which $MTCH operates in
Anyone have access to annual letters from Duquesne Capital Management by Stanley Drucknemiller? Have been trying to source the extensive list for weeks and no luck
@CapitalShipyard
@orrdavid
Don’t own $GOOGL yet but personally disagree, when there has been a historic moat such as this, the next product must be 10x better not just 2x. For the average searcher, google performs well enough that Chat GPT won’t gain market share as quick as the investment community expect
@LukeWolgram
@JonahLupton
I didn’t realise followers equated to proficiency in investing, our job is to do investment research not market ourselves on twitter, Jonah’s isn’t which is fine. Catching a 800% move in $SMCI shouldn’t be confused with being a successful long-term investor
@j4bert0
Don’t know and dont care I’ll make it a 40% position if I have to. Happy to keep buying from them at these prices, glad you’ve found analysis useful
@InvestRoiss
@Tintincapital
improvement from their retail partners and reward those who invest in their stores with significantly better allocations and higher sales per store (which has been the case with WOSG and is partly why revenue is up 2x and EBIT 4x in 5 years. Allocations for largest ADs and WOSG
Don’t know $HSY well but dont think this hasn’t been priced in, feastables potential is huge and as we have seen technological disruption think we now see significant consumer product disruption through influencer brands vs legacy players. Wouldn’t go short but prob also not long
$HSY is my highest conviction large cap short idea, and I think it suffers tremendously over the coming years
If anyone bullish on $HSY would like to do a respectful public bull/bear debate on Spaces, please let me know
Would love to flesh out the thesis in the public domain
@onebeggar
After elimination of debt they should buyback £250m or 50% of market cap in next 12m whilst showing cash generation from TIC business, stock would 2-3x. They’ll never do it though as No.1 requirement for UK exec is you have to hate your shareholders
We have now built out our full position of 12% in $FUTR.L at an average price of 598p. The co operates local monopolies within media niches and we believe they are poised to distribute significant shareholder return through their systematic approach to capital allocation.
What company do you know that has increased revenue over 6x and net profit over 40x in the last 5 years but trades at just 3.8x free cash flow? $FUTR.L
@Manisnoobs
Struggled with realistic long-term growth runway and terminal value on this one - also anecdotal but have visited 4/5 at different times and everyone has been completely empty
@RegSnowdon
@kab604
I would completely agree with this assessment, if anything I think it has given us more certainty on the situation as it has clarified their position whereas before it was an unknown
We are initiating a new position tomorrow which will make up 10-15% of the partnership. We believe it has a free call option to deliver 150% shareholder returns over the next 18 months with minimal downside. Oh and it provides uncorrelated and recession resistant returns
here whether it be through the YPF case (which even at a 50% haircut would yield over 100% of the market cap today) or through their potential to become a long-term compounder and deploy large amount of capital at extremely favourable returns (2/2)
@andrewcoye
Agree but you’re not paying for that today. Also only thing that will drive stock next 12-18m is rolex relationship and perception on that. Jewellery sales are meaningless for stock atm
@Billhuang1223
Rolex is intent on legacy preservation and not distribution. Distribution is v hard and low margin compared to their manufacturing business. Have had many discussions with ADs/Rolex and not motivated by money - eg AMZN offered richemont 100m to sell their stuff and they said no
@InvestRoiss
@Tintincapital
Bucherer wouldn’t have sufficient capex largely to consolidate the ~300 family owned and poorly ran ADs in the US and traditionally it’s been WOSG who have expanded here, they need them. Rolex wants the best store experience and who can provide significant investment
@InvestRoiss
@Tintincapital
continuing to maintain their share an improve allocation in core UK market. US market has roughly 10 ADs with a large presence and then ~300 with less than 3 stores that are typically family owned, poorly operated and underinvested dealerships. Watch brands expect continuous
@impassinvestor
@kab604
Exactly, my prediction is if some revenue growth returns stock will do fairly well from here but still trade at a meaningful discount to before due to this perceived risk, after a couple years when it’s apparent it’s not going to happen you will get the multiple expansion too
@kab604
Obvious one is Rolex decides to retail their own watches and stops providing WOSG with them but I ascribe about a 0.01% probability this happens. More likely is manufacturing can’t keep up with the demand for watches which caps growth and frustrated customers (seeing this now)
$MRL.L discount is insane, investors giving the company no credit despite successful divesture. If shareholders weren’t smooth brained brits would have traded at 600-650p post disposal
We have started a new position in $FUTR.L which we believe to be the cheapest company on the market right now. We believe traffic fears are overblown due to their diversified and highly engaged niche audiences.
@vk250382
@andrewcoye
Not going to happen, 1% was an arbitrary number I assigned to it to show that you can never be 100% certain in anything in investing but this is about as close as you can get. Growth etc who knows but rolex will not pull plug
@osculum_capital
Stock returns just like Burford returns likely to be lumpy, stock will go nowhere for 6-12 months at a time then go up 50% in a week. Long term returns should be favourable
@InvestRoiss
@Tintincapital
Sorry conclusion here isnt clear? You’re saying because rolex demand is at an all time high and waitlists are increasing this is negative for WOSG? Rolex allocations have increased YoY for last 10 yrs and they’re selling more rolex watches than ever, are you trolling or serious?
@jaym217
WOSG expansion in US has gone extremely well so far, luxury watch market organically growing 8/9% p.a which is double UK market growth so demand clearly very high. Watch industry is quite unique so competition framework different compared to drinks market for example eg $FEVR.L
@guastywinds
@orrdavid
@orrdavid
I built out the position today at $8.16 avg so if stock is < $11 at end of 2025 then you are more than welcome to take the victory lap. I think it will be worth significantly more
@InvestRoiss
@Tintincapital
Sure, demand for WOSGs top brands remains higher than ever, prices are steadily rising and they are improving allocations across all major geographies. They have positioned themselves perfectly to capitalise on opportunities to consolidate US AD market over next 5-10 yrs whilst
@kab604
@andrewcoye
Bucherer acquisition was defensive and one-off. Owner was old and had been in the works for years, Rolex acquired it as didn’t want to risk it going to LVMH/WOSG and losing control. If they completed another dealer acquisition then I would sell all my stock but not gonna happen
@Rebrand_As_Y
I think $BUR, impossible to hold for any fund who needs to report quarterly performance as returns lumpy/no guidance etc but probably performs extremely well from here over 3yrs
@InvestRoiss
@Tintincapital
has significantly outpaced the increase in production and there’s been a clear trend of this consolidation and WOSG being a beneficiary of this. They have a huge runway to improve existing stores or pursue M&A strategy which Rolex are in favour of to improve the product offering.
@InvestRoiss
@Tintincapital
Have you ever actually looked into the history of how Rolex do business or how the watch industry works? It feels to me that you’ve looked at some surface level facts, taken them at surface level and are happy with that. That is why the stock is trading at 350p not a new insight
We have generated a return of 584.43% over Parthenos’ first 5 years and we are now up 32.2% in the first 2 months of 2024. Our reflexivity investment approach has worked well since inception and we think the current market environment going forward it well suited to this too
@impassinvestor
@kab604
Bucherer have no presence in the US and very limited in the UK, Rolex would be cutting off a significant distribution channel which would be heavily detrimental to them, I don’t like to talk in certainties but it’s just not gonna happen.
@Kyle_morris____
UK luxury watch cagr lower at 3/4% organic p.a. Will certainly be a lower growth market at MSD but as US segment grows and strong growth opportunities there it will be more than offset. Importantly, at todays prices you’re not paying for any of that growth