International Value Advisers, LLC (IVA) will seek long-term growth of capital by investing in a range of securities and asset classes from markets around the world. Over the short-term (12-18 months), our attempt is to preserve capital while over the longer-term (5-10 years, i.e., over a full economic cycle), we seek to outperform our benchmark. We are trying to deliver returns that are as absolute as possible.
IVA employs a value oriented approach and will seek investments in companies of any size that typically have one or more of the following characteristics: financial strength, temporarily depressed earnings or entrenched franchises. However, the overriding attribute of such companies is that their securities offer fundamental value. For IVA, fundamental value is not to be confused with relative value. IVA pays particular attention to their emphasis on establishing an "intrinsic value" and a "margin of safety.”
IVA defines intrinsic value as "the amount that a knowledgeable investor or corporate competitor would pay - in cash - for 100% of the economic and controlling interests of a company.” A security is deemed attractive if there is a suitable margin of safety, meaning that the market price of a security is trading at a large discount to its assessed intrinsic value. We believe that this investment approach emphasizes capital preservation while still providing the capacity to achieve superior returns over the long-term.
We believe our strength resides in the contrarian, absolute return, low risk, global, pan-asset class emphasis. We pay no attention to what Wall Street or pundits believe. We pay close attention to the downside and aim to generate absolute returns by avoiding bubbles, maintaining geographic and asset class diversification and having a large weighted average discount to intrinsic values in the portfolios. Furthermore, we do not shy away from holding cash if attractive discounts are unavailable.
Investment opportunities are identified through intensive research of individual companies. IVA does not rely on third party research, which tends to focus on short-term earnings rather than intrinsic value.
IVA's computation of a company's intrinsic value is based on internally generated assumptions and opinions of key variables affecting the company's business. These variables may materially influence the assessed intrinsic value and perceived margin of safety to the internally calculated intrinsic value. Variables used in the computations are the opinion of IVA and may change without notice at any time.
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