Staley Cates: Where Value Investors are Finding Opportunities

Gaining Perspective

David Swensen, the manager of Yale’s endowment who passed away earlier this month, wrote the following in his 2005 book Unconventional Success:

Southeastern Asset Management (sponsor of the Longleaf Partners mutual-fund family) exemplifies every fundamentally important, investor-friendly characteristic conducive to active-management success. Portfolio managers exhibit the courage to hold concentrated portfolios, to commit substantial funds side by side with shareholders, to limit assets under management, to show sensitivity to tax consequence, to set fees at reasonable levels, and to shut down funds in the face of diminished investment opportunity.