Followers of Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. Investment philosophy is guided by the value investing principle of buying a security at a discount to its intrinsic value. In words of Founders, “when we invest in a stock, we buy the business and not the stock. We remain agnostic to the daily fluctuating stock price as long as we continue to believe in the business. In fact, we view market volatility as a friend that allows us to buy securities at a discount or sell at a premium to intrinsic value”
Investments are selected based on the following criteria:
Competitive Moat
• 2Point2 seeks to invest in businesses which have a strong competitive moat or are gradually widening their moat.
• The competitive moats which 2point2 finds attractive are those driven by strong brands, distribution strength, inherent cost advantages, technology/IP and high switching costs. These businesses demonstrate high capital efficiency and are typically cash flow positive.
• 2Point2 does not invest in businesses whose moats are primarily driven by regulations and political linkages.
Margin of Safety
• Valuation of businesses is absolute and not relative. Seeks to maintain valuation discipline by investing only at a discount to intrinsic value resulting in a margin of safety.
• This may entail staying in cash in periods of unreasonable euphoria in the markets and investing in periods of extreme distress.
• 2Point2 steadfastly follows the principle of ‘Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful’.
Corporate Governance
• 2Point2 Believes that stable long-term returns are generated by partnering managements which treat minority shareholders as equal partners.
• 2Point2 stays away from businesses with weak corporate governance practices and only invests in businesses led by ethical management teams.
Sectors
• Prefers to invest in sectors that have long term growth opportunities.
• Avoids investing in highly regulated sectors, and/or sectors that are linked significantly to commodity prices, ‘fad’ driven sectors and sectors exposed to technological disruption.
• It also avoids sectors that over a long period only generate accounting profits and not cash flows.