market folly

Opalesque interviewed Jeffrey Ubben of hedge fund ValueAct Capital and we wanted to highlight his thoughts on activist value investing and how it has evolved. Keep in mind that Ubben will be sharing his latest investment ideas at the Value Investing Congress in May (Update: you can see a summary of his presentation here).

In the video, Ubben touches on ValueAct Capital's strategy and how they change companies from the inside by working closely with them. Prior to founding the firm, he was a Managing Partner at Blum Capital Partners and before that managed the Fidelity Value Fund.

ValueAct typically holds 15-20 positions in its portfolio and is usually very active in the boardroom in about a third of them. ValueAct's partners have honed their skillset to include experience in boardrooms and Ubben argues that they resemble a Private Equity approach much more than other firms. You can see some of ValueAct's recent portfolio activity here.

In the interview, he touches on his investment approach as well as the cons of media involvement and proxy contests when running an activist campaign. Embedded below is Part 1 of Jeffrey Ubben's interview with Opalesque (email readers come to the site to watch):




And here is Part 2 of Jeffrey Ubben's interview:



You can hear Ubben's latest stock picks at the upcoming Value Investing Congress in May. Click here for a discount to the event (hurry because the discount expires tonight at midnight!)