Owning a Business

Our portfolio managers look to own businesses that we understand. We also look for businesses with an honest, ethical, energetic management team and a strong track record of increasing value. Other critical factors include:

• Competitive advantage
• History of delivering consistent earnings growth of 10% or more for the past five years
• History of increasing earnings in seven of the past 10 years
• Good balance sheet with little or no debt
• Unique or patented product, or monopoly or duopoly market
• High barrier to entry and a long runway of potential success
• High margin of safety: can be purchased at a discount to our estimate of value