Invest Like The Best
Episode 128 The Nature of Transformational Returns
Invest Like The Best

Episode 128: The Nature of Transformational Returns

Invest Like The Best

Episode 128

The Nature of Transformational Returns

Geoffrey Batt is the managing partner and founder of the Euphrates Iraq Fund. We cover investing in the Iraqi market, how to achieve transformational returns, and advice for young investors.

[00:00:49] – What does it take to earn transformational returns

[00:03:28] – How he deals with LPs, especially given the volatility of the market he invests in

[00:09:11] – Why LPs have to think about the other investors in a fund

[00:10:02] – How Geoffrey got interested in the Iraqi market

[00:15:00] – Factors he was considering when exploring Iraq

[00:18:05] – Visiting companies in Iraq

[00:21:15] – Most memorable meeting with a company on his first trip

[00:26:03] – Size and nature of Iraqi market when he first got interested

[00:29:29] – A specific allocator in Iraq

[00:33:22] – Does price reflect the work over there

[00:36:36] – What does he perceive as his role in the changes to Iraq’s equity market

[00:38:57] – How do Iraqi equities look today compared to when he started and is the opportunity still interesting

[00:42:59] – How businesses perceive him now that the market has opened up more

[00:46:13] – Scale of potential return and where it comes from

[00:48:36] – Advice for younger aspiring investors exploring frontier markets

[00:52:01] – Kindest thing anyone has done for Geoffrey

The Nature of Transformational Returns

Introduction

Patrick
My guest this week is Geoffrey Batt and the topic of our conversation is how to earn transformational returns in very hard markets. In his case, that means Iraqi equities, which we cover in detail. He now runs a large pool of capital in Iraqi Stocks through his firm, Euphrates, but the journey was arduous to say the least. This is one of my favorite boots on the ground contrarian investment stories thus far in the podcast. I hope you enjoy the story and the lessons that Geoff has to offer.

Transformational Returns

So, Geoff, this is going to be certainly one of the more unique equity investing discussions that I've ever had, centered on investing in Iraq specifically. But before we spend a lot of our hour together on that topic, I want to frame this with the notion that we talked about on the phone. I think we'll call this episode the nature of transformational returns. In several places, you've talked a bit about what it takes to earn the kind of 25, 50X returns that massively change an investor's life. And however wants that, but the actual experience of getting it is massively hard and uncomfortable. So maybe you could frame our entire conversation with this simple idea of what it takes to earn transformational returns.

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