1) BARROW
Insights
FUNDS
Value Principles
ï¬
Private Equity Perspective
Barrow All-Cap Core Fund
Institutional Class: BALIX
Investor Class: BALAX
Barrow All-Cap Long/Short Fund
Institutional Class: BFSLX
Investor Class: BFLSX
Portfolio Managers
Nicholas Chermayeff
Principal
1 years of industry
2
experience
BA Harvard College
Robert F. Greenhill, Jr.
Principal
2 years of industry
2
experience
BA Harvard College
MBA Harvard Business
School
About Barrow Street
Founded in 1997 by Nicholas Chermayeff
and Robert F. Greenhill Jr., Barrow Street
Capital LLC is an investment management
firm that manages value-oriented private
and public equity strategies.
Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut,
the firm serves pension funds, sovereign
funds, endowments, foundations, family
offices and high net worth individuals.
Since inception, Barrow Street has invested
approximately $550 million of equity in
private equity and public equity strategies.
Barrow Street Advisors LLC is an affiliate
of Barrow Street Capital LLC and is the
investment advisor for the Barrow Funds.
For More Information:
877-767-6633
www.barrowfunds.com
Portfolio Managers Nick Chermayeff and Bob Greenhill provide insight into how
the Barrow Funds seek to identify opportunities and manage risk as a component of an investor’s portfolio.
As a value-oriented all-cap manager, would you please discuss current
valuations relative to historical levels and whether any market cap
represents particular opportunity?
With regard to our Portfolio, we see equal opportunity among the large,
mid, and small cap sectors as our holdings in each sector remain heavily
discounted to our view of their intrinsic value. This discount, which we refer
to as the Margin of Safety†, is roughly at or above 50% for all three market
cap sectors. For the market at large, we see smaller discounts in the large
and mid cap sectors and modest overpricing in the small cap sector.
Barrow has been successful in the past at identifying companies that have
later experienced an M&A event. What factors are driving your selection
process to aid in your identification of companies that may experience an
M&A event?
Because our private equity experience informs many of the factors that drive
our security selection (e.g. conservative balance sheets, attractive operating
margins, efficient use of capital, and strong cash-flow), it is not surprising that
other private equity firms and corporate strategic buyers want to buy a
disproportionate share of our companies. Stocks with strong cash flows which
can be bought at a discount are clearly what a typical financial control buyer is
looking for in the public markets.
With corporate balance sheets flush with cash, would you please comment
on current M&A transaction volume and thoughts with respect to 2014?
Do you believe any specific sector will experience greater levels of interest?
During the years, many of our portfolio positions have proven to be acquisition
targets (4x the frequency of the market at large1). Therefore, we view increased
M&A transaction volume to be a positive for our performance. In 2013, M&A
activity is expected to be very similar to that of the previous four years, which
have been depressed. By comparison, 2008 and 2007 were 50% and 100%
higher, respectively, than the current level. If the market returns to those
historical volumes, we believe that we are well-positioned to benefit from the
additional premium that typically comes from these take-outs.
Given a similar discount to intrinsic value across all of our sectors, we do not
believe any one industry will experience more activity than another. With
respect to market cap, we expect small and mid cap stocks to garner the
majority of the M&A action, as has been the case historically.
(continued on next page)
1
Barrow calculates the frequency of M&A activity in its portfolio on a quarterly basis by dividing the cumulative number of
portfolio holdings that have been announced as merger or acquisition targets by the cumulative number of unique holdings
it has held in its portfolio. Barrow calculates the frequency of M&A activity in the market on a quarterly basis by dividing the
cumulative number of publicly-traded U.S. common stocks that have been announced as acquisition targets per Bloomberg
by the total universe of publicly-traded U.S. common stocks as identified by Bloomberg (approximately 10,000). The ratio
of portfolio M&A frequency to market-wide M&A frequency is calculated by dividing the portfolio’s average of quarterly
M&A frequency since inception 12/31/08 by the market-wide average of quarterly M&A frequency since inception 12/31/08.
2) BARROW
FUNDS
Value Principles
ï¬
Insights
Private Equity Perspective
Many all cap managers minimize their percentage
holdings in the small cap bucket and have a large/
mid cap bias. Would you please discuss your portfolio
composition from a market cap perspective and the
expected risk/reward of each capitalization range?
We generally weight our Portfolio equally across all
three market cap categories. We do this for a variety
of reasons, not the least of which is that the quality and
value attributes we use to select stocks have historically
generated alpha in all three categories. We are not afraid
to weight one-third of the Portfolio in smaller companies.
We want our investors to have the best opportunities for
returns across all capitalization ranges.
Your portfolio composition emphasizes six sectors that
are common across market caps. What led you to focus
on only these sectors?
We analyze companies based chiefly on audited
financials. We feel it’s an approach that is designed to
take out the risks of making erroneous forecasts and
emphasize proven operating results instead. There are
certain sectors that lend themselves better than others
to this framework. For example, technology and telecom
are currently excluded from our covered sectors
because their valuations typically rely heavily on
forward-looking predictions that we think are generally
unreliable. With regard to utilities, since they do not rank
attractively, we have historically made the decision to
exclude the sector entirely. Financials have not been
part of our Portfolio because even looking at audited
balance sheets often does not allow the reader to
assess stress risks to the franchise deriving from
derivatives and off-balance sheet liabilities.
Would you please discuss your risk mitigation
philosophy within the Long/Short Portfolio?
If we can deliver on our long-term goal of capital
appreciation while also attempting to reduce volatility and
preserve capital during market downtowns, our long/
short strategy may be a good alternative in model
portfolios for investors who have concerns about what
may be high risk and limited reward in other asset
classes.
What are your thoughts with respect to your short
positions?
Over time, we believe that companies with high-quality
balance sheets and operating fundamentals that trade at
significant discounts to our view of their intrinsic values
should outperform companies we consider to have
low-quality balance sheets and operating fundamentals
that trade at premiums to our view of their intrinsic value.
Our short book consists of a diversified collection of this
latter group—companies we consider to have poor
quality and value attributes. To achieve diversification, we
spread these shorts across many names, multiple
industry sectors, and all three market cap categories.
Please discuss the factors that drive your target
net long exposure. What is generally the operating
range for the net long exposure?
In the Barrow All-Cap Core Fund, we are essentially
fully-invested. We do not try to time the market or use
cash defensively. In the Barrow All-Cap Long/Short
Fund, we generally run the Fund such that it will
maintain gross exposure to the equity market to allow
investors a meaningful opportunity to participate in
Barrow’s alpha generation. Our short book is designed
to provide a hedge against market downturns. We like
maintaining consistent exposures to avoid emotional
responses to market volatility.
We believe that owning a diverse group of companies
that trade at a deep discount to their intrinsic value is the
most effective form of long-term risk mitigation. Over the
short term, we seek to partially insulate our Portfolio from
broader market fluctuations by building a carefully
selected, diversified short book of companies with poor
quality and value metrics. We balance these selections
by the market cap and sector weighting of our long
holdings to avoid inadvertent sector or market cap bets.
Disclosure
Mutual fund investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible. The Fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses must be considered carefully before
investing. The prospectus contains this and other important information about the Fund and may be obtained by calling 1-877-767-6633. Read it carefully before
investing.
†
Margin of Safety: Benjamin Graham, considered to be the father of value investing philosophy, wrote “the ‘margin of safety’ resides in the discount at which the stock is
selling below its minimum intrinsic value, as measured by the analyst.” Graham, B. and Dodd, D. (1951) Security Analysis. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.