Invest Like The Best
Episode 141 What Makes a Quality Company
Invest Like The Best

Episode 141: What Makes a Quality Company

Invest Like The Best

Episode 141

What Makes a Quality Company

Chris Bloomstran is the president and chief investment officer of Semper Augustus Investments Group. We cover what makes for a quality business, discuss examples of quality businesses, and take a deep dive into Berkshire Hathaway.

[00:01:18] – (First Question) – Largest investing error

[00:04:52] – Defining quality investor and their investment strategy

[00:11:48] – Incremental return on capital and other themes that they focus on with investments

[00:15:33] – Importance of a unique business model

[00:22:58] – Ownership of the customer relationship

[00:28:06] – Bringing distribution back in-house

[00:29:55] – Doing something unique with owned distribution

[00:32:40] – His thoughts on growth and value

[00:37:12] – History of his interest in Berkshire Hathaway and he characterizes the business

[00:53:29] – How is Berkshire protected into the future

[00:59:17] – Most important trends in adjustments

[01:08:00] – Which sectors or industries would he focus on

[01:10:02] – Most intriguing business he’s unlikely to own

[01:11:44] – Kindest thing anyone has done for him

What Makes a Quality Company

Introduction

Patrick
My guest this week is Chris Bloomstran, the president and chief investment officer of Semper Augustus Investments Group. He became famous in investing circles a few years ago for his incredibly detailed investigations of Berkshire Hathaway. But we do cover Berkshire towards the end of the conversation we spend most of our time talking about what makes for a quality business. I love some of his angles in the current landscape, including our discussion of companies like Richemont and Disney, which are actively taking distribution back in-house. Please enjoy our conversation.

Biggest Investing Mistake

Patrick
An interesting place to start, which I've really not done before, would be with your biggest mistake, biggest investing mistake. We'll talk a lot about successes and interesting companies over the course of the conversation, but oftentimes we learn most from our biggest screw-ups. And you were talking a little bit about one of those before we hit record. And so let's begin there.

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