Arthur O'Keefe in Sikkim India, January 2009
Investment Approach
Focused on Latin American Offshore Credit Investments, mainly in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Colombia, as I believe there is a substantial need and demand in the market for a Latam-focused credit product.
In general, though, basically a cash flow / value investor. Indifferent to the instrument that produces the cash flow – be it a stock, an investment grade or high yield bond, a loan, an option, or a private equity investment.
Short History
Have seen and done a tremendous number of things that helps in analyzing an opportunity.
Grew up in New Orleans, graduated a Computer Engineer from GWU in Washington, DC after which I was commissioned a Naval Officer. Spent 5 years in the Nuclear Submarine Service, 3.5 of which was aboard the USS Georgia including cumulatively over 1 year underwater.
In 2002 I left the Navy to attend Harvard Business School where I graduated in the top 5% of the class (academically) – a Baker Scholar – and won the school’s finance award (a Loeb Scholar).
After HBS began a career that took me through stints as (1) a trader at a large investment bank, (2) a “quant” at a startup hedge fund, (3) a CFO of a large hedge fund in New York through 2008.
These experiences were invaluable in forming my investment style, but the defining event came in late 2008 when I had the opportunity to move to New Delhi, India to work in real estate venture capital building houses and hotels throughout India. My experiences in India gave me a much better understanding of investors, customers, service providers, transparency (and lack of it), negotiations, deal making, and capital formation.
Also fortuitous (but not at all unexpected) was that by being in India I missed the bursting of the US housing bubble and was able to participate in both sides of the process – the rise and fall and the subsequent recovery – by being in a place that was partially isolated and protected from the confusion occurring on Wall Street and that allowed me to make a calm and careful analysis of the situation and invest with clarity of thought.
In February 2009 I left India and moved to São Paulo, Brazil where I continue to reside (very happily).
In late January 2011 the focus of my investment management efforts narrowed to Latin American Offshore Credit Investments, mainly in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Colombia, as I believe there is a substantial need and demand in the market for an Latam-focused credit product.
Arthur O’Keefe, São Paulo Value
art@spvalue.com
Hi, Interesting comment on EUR . . .EUR goes down, $ goes up, US assets go up . . . not sure it helps the stocks, so many have been clobbered due to exposure to EUR . . . hmmm, will have to think about this . . . just seems like everything is shaky . .
Those comments were posted a while ago… I need to get up to speed as I have been traveling and then working on some other projects. Finally ported the blog over to wordpress and now will dive back into the markets. Right now the EUR is rallying on realization that recovery in the US will be slow (at best). Also the stress tests are helping restore confidence. Perhaps the thinking is that the stress tests will show the banks aren’t in such bad shape that they can go out and raise capital much as the US banks did. As a result people are feeling better about holding EUR.
We’ll see. The second half is going to be interesting. Earnings season looks like it will be strongish – maybe the last hurrah before stimulus wears off and implicit and explicit tax increases kick in. Additionally the conditions of the states could cause some surprises. Layoffs are probable and some defaults entirely possible.
Art