Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

Latest Episodes:

Adam Fisher – Blending Global Macro and Real Estate at Commonwealth Asset Management (First Meeting, EP.21) Jul 13, 2020

Show notes

Adam Fisher is the CIO of Commonwealth Asset Management, which he founded as Commonwealth Opportunity Capital in 2008 and re-launched in 2019 after a two-year interlude Soros Fund Management. Commonwealth manages both a global macro hedge fund and private real estate assets with a thematic bent. In getting there, Adam traded his bar mitzvah money, attended law school, and started real estate investment companies in the U.S. and Asia. Our conversation covers Adam's self-taught trading, early stumbles in private equity, and a one-off encounter with Richard Rainwater that led to his creating his first business. From there, we touch on thematic real estate investing, hedging his investments leading into the financial crisis, and pivoting back to trading alongside real estate investing thereafter. We discuss the challenges of traditional global macro businesses, the benefits of investing in one-off big ideas, the synergies across real estate and macro investing, interest rates, and Adam's outlook on the markets and industry.

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Sustainable Investing 10: Hiro Mizuno – Changing the Game (Capital Allocators, EP.148) Jul 09, 2020

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Hiro Mizuno is the recently departed Executive Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of GPIF, Japan's $1.5 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund, which is the largest pool of institutional capital in the world. In taking the seat five years ago, Hiro sought to change how large asset owners go about investing capital. Our conversation covers his differentiated thought process across drivers of return, the home country bias, implementation of investing, and structural alignment with active managers. We then talk about the Universal Ownership concept, stewardship of passively managed assets, evaluation of manager effectiveness, ESG integration in fixed income, and the current carbon footprint for GPIF and therefore for the global economy. Hiro has made a serious dent in how asset owners, index fund managers, and companies consider sustainable investing principles and was the perfect guest to complete this mini series, Sustainable Investing: The Next Frontier.

Sustainable Investing 9: Reuben Munger – Private Capital Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.147) Jul 06, 2020

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Reuben Munger is the Managing Partner of Vision Ridge Capital, a private investment firm with over $1 billion in assets that focuses on sustainable real assets. Reuben started Vision Ridge in 2008 after a decade of value investing experience at The Baupost Group. Our conversation discusses Reuben's path and his approach to sustainable real asset investing in the private markets. We talk about his time at Baupost, transition from broad public market investing to focused venture impact investing personally, and the creation of Vision Ridge alongside Jeremy Grantham and Capricorn Investment Group. We then discuss Vision Ridge's flexible investment strategy, creative structuring, portfolio construction, opportunities in power and mobility, competitive dynamics, team, and outlook.

Sustainable Investing 8: Lauren Taylor Wolfe – Activist Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.146) Jul 02, 2020

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Lauren Taylor Wolfe is co-founder and Managing Partner of Impactive Capital, an activist hedge fund that engages with companies to drive long-term sustainable returns. Impactive employs a breadth of tools common to activist strategies, working with management teams on capital allocation, operational initiatives and capital structure, and adds material ESG improvements as a key component of the long-term future success of its portfolio companies. Our conversation covers Lauren's early interest in investing, her path to founding Impactive, and investment philosophy. We touch on Impactive's four key investment criteria, examples of ESG activism in a hotel, an auto dealer, and a waste water business, evolution of interest in sustainability from management teams, the value of long duration capital, and perspectives for women in the industry.

Sustainable Investing 7: Tony Davis – Hedge Fund Perspective at Inherent Group (Capital Allocators, EP.145) Jun 29, 2020

Show notes

Tony Davis is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Inherent Group, a value-oriented hedge fund that invests across the capital structure and uses ESG factors to source and underwrite its investments. Prior to founding Inherent Group, Tony was co-founder, President and portfolio manager at Anchorage Capital, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund.

Our conversation covers Tony's early career experience at Goldman Sachs, key lessons from twenty years at Anchorage Capital, his retirement and philanthropic work in impact investing that led to the formation of Inherent Group. We then turn to his activities at Inherent, including his rationale for taking in outside capital, sourcing longs and shorts, incorporating E, S and G factors in underwriting, quantifying sustainability, constructing the portfolio, and engaging with portfolio companies. We close with a few investment examples, potential opportunities in distressed debt, and tips for allocators researching ESG managers.

Sustainable Investing 6: Richard Lawrence - ESG Integration at Overlook (Capital Allocators, EP.144) Jun 25, 2020

Show notes

Richard Lawrence is the Executive Chairman of Overlook Investments, a leading value-oriented investment firm in Asia that he founded in 1991. Richard was an early guest on the show telling Overlook's story, and that conversation follows in the feed. Over the years, Richard grew passionate about the environment and ESG principles, and quietly integrated them in Overlook's research process starting a decade ago. Our conversation covers the ESG integration lens at Overlook. We discuss stories of early governance challenges in Asia and the development of modern finance technology, social issues related to the quality of businesses, and environmental considerations of excluding industries, reporting challenges, principles, and tradeoffs. We close with Richard's philanthropic work on climate change and in the closing questions, his take on US-China relations.

[REPLAY] Richard Lawrence – Compounding in Asia (Capital Allocators, EP.21) Jun 25, 2020

Show notes

Richard Lawrence is the Chairman and Executive Director of The Overlook Group, a $5 billion investment organization focused on Asian equities that Richard founded in 1991. Over the past quarter-century, Overlook developed and implemented disciplined investment and business philosophies that interconnected to drive extraordinary results for its partners. Overlook has compounded capital at an annualized 14.5%, outperforming its benchmark by an insane 9% per annum. But that's not all, as Richard would proudly tell you himself, the capital weighted return of the average investor in Overlook is nearly identical to the time weighted return over any period of time – a rare feat in the money management industry. Indeed, today's asset base is the result of $4 billion of investment gains on top of $1 billion in contributed capital. Our conversation starts with a look at investing in Asia in Overlook's early days and walks through the particulars of the approach Richard takes to investing and running his business, including attractive investment attributes, management integrity, portfolio construction, selling discipline, and China Yangtze Power - the only stock the firm supersized in an SPV in its history. We discuss Overlook's long-held cap on subscriptions and periodic reductions in its management fee, two business philosophies that Richard believes have been key drivers of Overlook's success. If you enjoyed my conversation with Tom Russo, you won't want to miss this one with Richard.

Sustainable Investing 5: David Blood - Pioneering a Generation (Capital Allocators, EP.143) Jun 22, 2020

Show notes

David Blood is co-founder and Senior Partner of Generation Investment Management, a pioneering sustainable investing firm he started with seven partners in 2004, including Vice President Al Gore. Our conversation covers the importance of culture in organizations, building businesses at Goldman Sachs, and David's fortuitous introduction to Al Gore. We turn to Generation's investment philosophy, principles, and investment process, including its focus on desirable industries, great businesses, and integration of ESG factors in research. We close by looking out at the next 5-10 years and addressing the urgency of the initiatives to improve the climate and social injustice.

Sustainable Investing 4: Emanuel Citron – Sourcing Sustainable Managers (Capital Allocators, EP.142) Jun 18, 2020

Show notes

Manny Citron is Managing Partner at Volery Capital, a private equity firm he co-founded in 2017 to invest in asset management businesses and companies that generate positive social and environmental impact. Manny and his team have canvassed a landscape of over one thousand sustainable investing focused funds and shares a glimpse of what that research discovered. We discuss Manny's path to founding Volery, mapping the universe of impact managers, identifying attractive manager characteristics and thematic opportunities, conducting due diligence, measuring impact, and adding value to portfolio companies. We then turn to investor interest in the space, risks, Volery's backing of Renewable Resources Group, and the future of impact investing.

Sustainable Investing 3: Bob Litterman – Pricing Climate Risk (Capital Allocators, EP.141) Jun 15, 2020

Show notes

Bob Litterman is a founding partner and Chairman of the Risk Committee at Kepos Capital. Prior to Kepos, he spent 23 years at Goldman Sachs, where his roles included heading the firm-wide risk function and the Quantitative Investment Strategies Group at GSAM. Bob was one of the original inductees into Risk Magazine's Risk Management Hall of Fame and is well known for co-developing the Black-Litterman Global Asset Allocation model with the late Fisher Black. After leaving Goldman in 2009, he became fascinated by the risk management problem posed by climate change, and that is the focus of this 3rd episode in Sustainable Investing, the Next Frontier. Our conversation covers Bob's background in quantitative research, applying risk management principles to address climate change, modeling the price of carbon emissions, and concluding that we must slam on the brakes immediately to address global warming. We then turn to his work on policy to implement his conviction and his activity in the public markets across the World Wildlife Fund's stranded asset swap and research at Kepos to play a rapid adoption theme from the lens of a quant investor.

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