If you are a beginner that’s a great book but if you have read quite a bit already on value investing like I did, then that’s the usual stuff that you already know. Nevertheless, this book had some impact on me. Since it was written in 1999, already 18 years ago, it made me realize that on the topic of value investing, everything has already been written many times over and since many years already. Because of that, our companies tend to have very strong balance sheets, this focus on cash flow. And, to give you the median interest cover for companies in the fund is currently about 28 times. We've got 14 of the 27 companies with net cash and another 11 with modest gearing. So those are the sort of financial metrics we're looking at, but the key thing is management, management that acts with the owner's eye and behaves like an owner of the business, not a sort of hired hand. We keep a very wary eye on margin development because if you're growing you should be improving your margins. And just to give you the measure, I mean the average gross margin in Buffettology is 58%, and the average operating margin is 22%, so well above what the market averages are.

And the one that we've got a good opportunity with, at long last, was Fevertree Drinks (LSE:FEVR). And that, you would have thought, should have gone into Buffettology, given the size of it. The reason we put it into Free Spirit and not Buffettology, was that Buffettology already owns Diageo (LSE:DGE), which is its sort of premium-brand business, and it also owns Barr (A G) (LSE:BAG), in a more sort-of general area so, we thought, well, Fever-Tree will go more naturally into Free Spirit. It doesn't have that exposure. So that's why it went in there. But in terms of Buffettology, as I say, the only thing that we've really done is and it's been very limited, is just top up one or two. We haven't put any new names, as they call it, into the portfolio. The discussion of Warren's qualitative approach is nothing new if you've heard any of Warren's talks or if you've read any of his shareholder letters. I think some of the phrases might have been lifted straight from the letters. First determine what you want to own, then wait for a good price. The price you pay determines your rate of return. Without some predictability of future earnings, any calculation of a future value is mere speculation, and speculation is an invitation to folly." Buffettology The intrinsic value of an investment is the projected annual compounding rate of the return the investment will produce.Kyle Caldwell: And that rotation into value, which has benefited certain value sectors, such as oil and the miners in particular. If that were to persist for a long time, would you change your approach at all? I had also read by then a couple of other books from Mary Buffett (The Oracle’s ex-daughter in law, his son’s Peter ex-wife). She wrote several. This one will remind you, that when buying great businesses, it’s all about having a durable competitive advantage, a long product life ahead, with little change, little disruption probability, little capex requirement, so in other words tons of free cash flow. If you can buy this business when the price is fair or even better, when it’s cheap, then you never need to sell.

Examine the kinds of companies that capture Buffett's interest, and learn how you can use this information to make your own investment choices of the future Graham was an absolute pioneer in the field of value investing, and Warren Buffett soaked up all of his knowledge and started applying this strategy himself. At least, until Buffett's brilliant business partner Charlie Munger convinced him that it is more important to buy a good business than a cheap business.

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We believe all loyalty bonuses are tax-free and we are challenging HMRC's interpretation. However, while we make this challenge we are paying loyalty bonuses within the Vantage Fund & Share Account net of an amount equivalent to the basic rate tax. If we are successful in our challenge we will return this money to clients. If we are unsuccessful we will use the money to pay over any amounts due to HMRC. It is not difficult to see why, because retained earnings is the money that a company can reinvest into the company for future growth, and the return on equity determines to a large extend the extra income that will be generated from these investments. So the higher the retained earnings and the higher the return on equity, the faster the intrinsic value of a company will grow over time. Keith Ashworth-Lord: Very much so. What you were seeing there was a contraction of price-to-earnings (P/E) multiples on the investee companies that we own. And just to prove that point, 23 of our 27 companies in 2022 reported earnings or trading statements that were in line with expectations or even better than expectations. But of those 27 companies, 22 of them finished the year with their share prices down and in some cases down quite a lot. So, I can't stress really too much that the operating performance of the companies is absolutely up to scratch. And it's been purely a market phenomenon. This rotation, so-called rotation into value, which has affected the multiples that the market accords our companies.

Where Graham, but also the famous Graham-and-Doddsvilleinvestor Walter Schloss, bought cheap companies and lots of them to spread the risk, Buffett prefers a focused portfolio with only a handful of excellent businesses with a competitive advantage and growing value. Owning only great businesses means less diversificationis necessary.If you desire to have a real increase in your purchasing power, then it is necessary that the return on your wealth be at least equal to the effects of inflation and taxation." Buffettology Also, loyalty bonuses received by overseas investors, companies and charities are not required to be paid with the deduction of tax. Therefore, if you are an overseas investor, or you represent a company or charity please let us know if you would like your loyalty bonuses paid without the deduction of an amount equivalent to the basic rate tax.

Companies that have consumer monopolies have the economic power to pull themselves out of most bad news situations. What you will find in this book is what I have found to be difficult to find elsewhere. This book essentially combines the qualitative investment philosophy that Warren talks about a great deal about publicly with the quantitive aspects he rarely talks about directly. And it does a pretty good job of combining these two worlds. But the book reveals even more tactics which hardly any other book about his strategy seems to cover: the importance of OPM, Other People's Money.Any administrative or dealing enquiries about the Fund should be directed to the ACD’s appointed registrar on 0330 123 3739 (UK) or +44 (0)20 3975 1021 (international). In some cases the ongoing savings are provided by our loyalty bonus. Loyalty bonuses are tax-free in an ISA or SIPP. However, they may be Oh, about those qualifications… It helps to start off with about 15 years worth of the average persons gross pay in the bank to start investing. You also have to be quite obsessed with making money. You also have to be able to live off of a fraction of your earnings until you start to really roll in the dosh – that means patience and a willingness to forego instant gratification. But once you do these things, you can be well on your way to becoming quite wealthy – in 30 or so years. Actually, if you follow the guidelines laid out in this book, I’d wager you’d be quite well off in just 10 or 15 years.