by William Thorndike. The compact 200-page book published in 2012, profiles eight unconventional business leaders and has become somewhat a sacred text for some fund managers.
“Given the time sensitive nature of this review by the special committee, we felt that we needed to put our views out and in public,” says Jayson Vowles, the managing partner of the firm and co-lead investor alongside Allison, of the News Corp campaign. The structure that exists in the United States is a conundrum for IFP that regard themselves as co-owners of the business. But Allison says management of open share registers are arguably more prone to short-termism.“We actually prefer it, but you have to be cognisant that sometimes you don’t have the same seat at the table that those founders and controlling shareholders do have,” says Allison.
IFP’s Global Franchise strategy dates back to 1996 under the Morgan Stanley umbrella and the 2500 cumulative return net of fees since that inception date is five times that of the broader global index. “Over the last 10 to 15 years, that’s been our single biggest contributor to returns because they’ve compounded over time, but they’ve also been exceptional at capital discipline.”
“Managing portfolios, and being able to see which categories are emerging and which are maturing given changing consumer preferences and demographics, that is becoming increasingly important.” “You’ve got this great business with the potential for high margins and exceptional returns on capital, but they were going in the other direction – highly cyclical capital intensive and low margin with high leverage.The since abandoned strategy proved disastrous and Zillow’s share price cratered. IFP began buying, although Allison admits that in retrospect, given a doubling of mortgage rates, they were a bit early.