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Our Research Process

Our repeatable investment process includes disciplined screening to find interesting companies in every part of the world, thorough hands-on research to sort the wheat from the chaff, and careful monitoring of valuations in an effort to maximize investment results.

Our Research Process Artwork

Core Investment Belief

"We believe the best long-term investment opportunities can be found by investors who are fully canvassing the world and considering each company within its global context. A company must compete globally as business has moved beyond measurement by a single country border.

The universe of impressive yet underfollowed small- and micro-cap companies around the world is extensive and growing every day. There are a tremendous number of high quality companies with strong growth potential, but which are too small to catch the eye of Wall Street and large mutual funds.

We believe global micro to mid-caps will be one of the most interesting and rewarding investment opportunities of the next decade."

Our Research Process Bar Chart

Global Analyst Coverage

We believe understanding a sector globally is critical to finding BICs (Best-In-Class Growth Companies).
We have senior analysts dedicated to each of the six global sectors, supported by a quantitative analyst.

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Bottom-Up Investment Process

Bottom-Up Investment Process Chart

Steps to Bottom-Up Investing

  • Disciplined Screening

    52-week screening schedule by country, industry, and financial trends of interest keeps us constantly looking at opportunities

  • Rigorous Due Diligence

    Analyzing the company, industry, competitors, and suppliers

    Traveling the world to visit companies and meet senior management

  • Collaborative Evaluation

    Tapping into the experience and insights of the full team in considering each investment

  • Build Earnings Models

    Understanding the key drivers and expected returns for each company

  • Close Attention to Valuation in Purchase Decision

    Seeking to avoid P/E compression risk

    Valuation being a key factor in position size

Investment Focus

High Quality Companies

Quality is an attribute that we look for across all holdings in the portfolios. We have found that certain attributes of a high quality company are key to the sustained success of growing small-cap companies. Here are a few other qualities we look for:

Financial

  • High, and less volatile, margins
  • Strong balance sheet with low debt
  • High returns on capital

Business Model

  • Sustainable competitive advantage
  • Steady business

Management

  • Experienced
  • Proven

Investment Types

Best in Class Growth Companies

Our primary focus is finding the undiscovered growth story with significant growth potential, led by a quality management team. The company should have strong financials, a good business model with a sustainable competitive advantage.

Fallen Angels

A Fallen Angel is a growth company that has hit what we believe to be a temporary bump in the road and is trading at very interesting valuations relative to its future potential.

Stalwarts

A Stalwarts company is a growth company that is maturing, with a proven success story. Often the company has high cash flow and a solid balance sheet, a great business model with a strong competitive advantage. Buying a Stalwart company at a good value is key.

Sell Discipline

We are long-term investors with a buy-and-hold approach, but we will trim or sell current holdings when our Quality-Value-Momentum Matrix has changed or when these circumstances arise:

Best-In-Class Growth Companies (BICs)

  • Valuation (PE/LTG) no longer attractive
  • Thesis has changed or was wrong

Fallen Angel

  • Valuation: Turn around gets priced into the stock
  • Determine problems are deeper than expected

Stalwarts

  • Valuation (PE/LTG+Yield) no longer attractive

Annual Company Touch Tracker

Meeting with management and visiting companies is an important part of our investment process. We are searching the globe for undiscovered gems. Each company's financial history tells a story to help us find the most interesting small companies, but after having met with thousands of management teams through the years we also know that we can gain valuable insights into a company's strategy, competitors, industry, and the management team's ability to execute their long-term business plan by taking the time to talk with them and to build a relationship with the leaders of our companies. This is the final step in helping us distinguish between good companies and great companies.

The graphic below represents our company meetings by country over the past twelve months. Our team not only travels the world, but also we are also hosts regular conference calls with management teams. The tracker includes both in-person and conference call meetings but excludes quarterly earnings calls or other public meetings in which we may also be in attendance.

Company Touch Tracker Details

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Notes from the Road