Bob Desmond is the Co-Portfolio Manager and Head of Claremont Global. He joins Raymond Jang on The Australian Investors Podcast to share his investing journey and the inner sanctum of Claremont Global.
Bob provides an in-depth overview of the investment process at Claremont Global and demonstrates this through a lot of global names.
This chat instilled valuable insights into the qualities a business and a management team ought to possess to become truly great.
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Talking points
Introduction – Bob Desmond gives a fascinating rundown of what it was like growing up in his home country, Zimbabwe.
08:15 – Bob’s investing career spanning across Zimbabwe, London and Sydney.
24:30 – The Claremont Global investing philosophy starting off with an in-depth discussion about why people and patience are so integral. Companies mentioned include Ross Stores (NASDAQ: ROST) and LVMH (EPA: MC).
36:00 – Why the team at Claremont Global tries to ensure that process and the portfolio are prioritised over one’s ego.
40:00 – A different view within the team helped Bob avoid making a mistake (to date) of investing in Alibaba (HKG: 9988).
42:00 – Bob gets stuck into the heavy lifting process of carrying out on the ground research to understand what makes companies so special. He uses Sherwin-Williams (NYSE: SHW) as an illustration.
48:30 – The quick numerical metrics that Claremont Global uses to filter out companies.
56:00 – Bob walks through the compound probability framework to determine the forecastability of businesses. Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) gets a special mention.
60:00 – How Bob and Claremont Global have curated a list of around 100 investable companies in their universe.
71:00 – What Bob and his team look for in a high-quality management team.
77:00 – Bob uses Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: FB) as a case study where he and the team couldn’t attain conviction on the quality of the management team.
79:30 – The valuation metrics applied at Claremont Global.
87:30 – Why Claremont Global takes the view that European and ASX stocks tend to trade at a premium to the US.
90:30 – How Claremont Global monitors potential fade in a company’s competitive advantage.
93:00 – The qualities that Bob looks for in a colleague.
102:00 – Bob reveals the people who have had the most influence on him as a person and investor.
Resources:
- Claremont Global website
- View more episodes & access Rask’s research: https://bit.ly/raskresearch
Date recorded: April 13th, 2022
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