Maverick Capital Management, LLC
6.3% 5,858,793 as of Dec. 31, 2007 and filed 2/14/2008
Lee S. Ainslie III
Maverick Capital is a $10 billion hedge fund with offices in Dallas and New York. It has long been known as one of the largest and most consistently successful hedge funds. It was started in 1993 with $38M in capital by Lee S. Ainslie III, who was a protégé of the legendary investor Julian Robertson at Tiger Management, one of the most successful hedge funds in history.
Maverick is a little different than many of today’s hedge funds as it relies on old fashioned stock picking for its returns. In a recent interview with McKinsey Quarterly, Ainslie said “Maverick is more of a traditional hedged fund, investing only in equities and maintaining a balance of long and short positions.”
The fund looks to hold stocks on average between 1 and 3 years.
We, and other equity investors, have been rather frustrated by the record levels of corporate cash when the real cost of money is as cheap as it's ever been. Last fall, we had negative real rates in the United States for the first time in 25 years. Yet we also have record-low levels of debt. So when we see an inefficient capital structure and there's no proactive program to find ways to return that capital through buybacks or dividends, we want to understand why.”
stockpickr.com
Lee S. Ainslie III, managing partner of investment giant Maverick Capital Ltd., with more than $9 billion in assets under management. It's just one more reason he likes to keep a low profile. (He agreed to an interview, but declined to have his picture taken.) That doesn't mean he wants to be ignored, though, especially not by companies in which his firm takes large positions.
Some [people] associate hedge funds with a great deal of risk or a very-short-term trading orientation, but Maverick is different. We've always been longer-term strategic investors, [and] every decision is supported by a tremendous amount of due diligence. This is an oversimplification, but we tend to look out two or three years in every industry in which we invest and identify what's winning and what's losing. Then we [look for] discrepancies between our views and those of the market..... We also spend a lot of time trying to understand the fundamentals of the business. [We look closely at] the management teams: their integrity, their dedication, and their desire to create shareholder value.
Sometimes short-sellers become a convenient excuse for declining stocks. I still remember the management teams of Enron and WorldCom constantly blaming and complaining about shorts when, in reality, fundamental issues were the true drivers of their poor stock performance. It's difficult, if not impossible, for a short-seller to profit from driving the stock price down if the company's fundamentals are still intact.
cfo.com
hedgeclipper |
