The investment philosophy is quite simple, yet very powerful – our
aim is to build the wealth of our clients by investing in high quality companies at
reasonable prices. We believe that long-term wealth generation is possible
when the following conditions are satisfied:
1. Investing in companies that have a strong competitive advantage
over their peers;
2. Investing when the prices are attractive.
Our stress is on the analysis of individual companies, and not so
much on predicting the movement of the stock market indices. The focus is on
companies that qualify under the following criteria.
> Proven track record
> Competent and honest management
>
Strong presence in its own industry (preferably No.1 or No.2)
> Strong
efficiency indicators such as higher sales / capital, improving ROCE
>
Free cash flow generation
> The proven ability of management to successfully
introduce new products
> A strong balance sheet
> A significant
competitive advantage that would make it difficult for its
peers to dislodge the company
> Good prospects over the next few years
>
Price that affords a reasonable margin of safety
Stock markets can be volatile in the short run. In the short run, the
price movements are governed by thousands of variables over which we have little
control. In the long run however, the stock prices tend to reflect the
inherent fundamentals of the company and roughly reflect the growth in profits and
cash generation capabilities of the company. We therefore do not attempt to forecast
the movement of the stock market indices; instead
we focus on identifying strong investment candidates. In sum, we attempt to buy high
quality companies at reasonable prices, and reasonably attractive companies at
below-average prices.