Blog

As an analyst, most of my time is spent deepening my understanding of our portfolio of companies and researching potential new investment candidates.  But every once in a while, I meet with investors in our fund. They always ask “how do you come up with new ideas?”  After my deer-in-headlights stun wears off, I usually give a rambling, incoherent monologue and it is a miracle if they don’t pull out their funds immediately.

Engagement is the new buzz word in Japanese fund management. Firms such as Neuberger Berman[1] and UBP[2] have launched new engagement funds, and many institutional investors have created dedicated departments to focus on engaging with companies.  We are often asked if we are an engagement fund because we have a concentrated portfolio. But for us, engaging with a company is just one of our tools, and not the end goal of the fund.

An Early Lesson

The day after my college graduation, my roommates and I were packing up to leave. One roommate was preparing to drive halfway across the country to home and deciding what would fit in his car. He asked if I would make an offer for his loose change jar.

I had seen him depositing pocket change into the jar for the last 4 years each time he came home for the day. I had no idea how much money was in there, but offered $20, thinking that was a safe bet. He accepted. Two days later I took it to a Coinstar machine at my local supermarket, which converts your coins into bills for a 10% fee, and walked out with $180 in my pocket.

This was a powerful lesson in the value of taking the other side from a forced seller, even under conditions of uncertainty.

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Working with Mr. Arnhold

Mr. Henry H. Arnhold died on Friday August 23^rd, 2018.  He was 96 years old.  I met Mr. Arnhold in 1998 when I joined Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder, Inc., a predecessor firm of First Eagle Investment Management.  Around that time, he was not actively involved in day-to-day management of the company, and instead focused on managing some family accounts and DEF Associates.  DEF was comprised of a fund of George Soros’ Quantum funds, in-house funds, some outside funds, and some direct investments.  At that time, Quantum funds were not taking new capital, but traded on secondary markets.  Some funds traded at huge premiums to their NAV such as Nick Roditi’s Quota Fund, which carried a premium as high as 80%.

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In 1986, my grandfather, Koichiro Yasu (安 弘一郎) wrote a book about the origins of my family and Jyujiya Securities Co. Ltd., (十字屋証券) our family brokerage firm, which was originally started by my great grandfather, Tsunesaburo Yasu (安 常三郎), in 1924. Late in life, Koichiro was diagnosed with liver cancer and knew his remaining life was not long. Instead of going after his bucket list, he wrote a book to share his experiences with other family members and people in the brokerage industry. We privately published the book and distributed it at his funeral (so you won’t find it on Amazon). Read More >