In Practise Investor Dialogues gathers a group of professional investors to explore the value drivers and risk factors of a specific business, moderated by In Practise. Attendees are selected on the basis of the depth of their knowledge of the security that is subject of the dialogue.

Spotify, Podcasting & Competition

I think the first broad question is just around the durability of IRRs and overall returns for Burford. How and why is Burford's returns or edge in financing litigation durable?

Burford Capital: Moat, Insurance Risks, Sysco, YPF

Investor Dialogue: Evolution Gaming & Live Casino Competition

Investor Dialogue: Wayfair, Temple & Webster, Furniture Logistics, & Structural Advantages

Investor Dialogue: Ashtead, United Rentals, & US Equipment Rental

Just to start, one thing I’ve always been curious about, especially in the last few years, is just how to value these businesses. Obviously, very few of them are cheap, at least on any normalized or free cash flow metric. Who wants to kick off and share any key drivers or what they look at when they are valuing, either when they are modelling something out or, even conceptually, how they look at valuing something like Constellation, today?

Investor Dialogue: Valuing Constellation Software & Lumine Spin

Let’s just start with a quick introduction about yourself, your strategy, your fund and then, more specifically, about your relationship around the area, whether you own any assets, why, for how long and what you are looking at.

Investor Dialogue: Amazon Web Services

I’ve looked at Watsco for a while and one of the questions – probably the biggest question I have – is just the Carrier relationship. My understanding of a B2B distributor, a huge part of the value is, basically, having a wide breadth of offering; saving the customer time in either sourcing product from many different OEMs, offering them scale advantages, in terms of price and time, and holding that inventory so they don’t have to hold it on their balance sheet. They are the principles.

Investor Dialogue: Watsco

I think a good place to start is the relatively large new acquisition they have made. Does anyone have any thoughts on Geotek and when that hit press?

Investor Dialogue: Judges Scientific

One of the first questions I had was, how did you choose to invest in one or the other share classes?

Investor Dialogue: HEICO, Transdigm, & Terminal Values

The recent update is probably a good place to start, in terms of the asset management versus the balance sheet. It depends how you interpret the update, but it seemed as if they suggested they weren't going to raise much more third-party money and they were going to focus more on the balance sheet. What did you make of that, given your experience in these businesses?

IP Investor Dialogue: Burford Capital - YPF, Book Value, & Valuation

Analyst 1: The question is – and we need some clarification here – as a result of the recent transaction that happened, Carvana took on some debt. They had to give pretty good terms to the debt holders and, from the press releases, it wasn’t clear whether the Garcias were part of the debt-holding group but I guess, it has been confirmed they are not, so their interests are still 100% aligned with the shareholders.

Investor Dialogue: Carvana Liquidity & Finance GPU

The first thing we could discuss is the addressable market. Clearly, part of the bull case is that it’s huge. What is your sense of the potential limitations in that market size?

Investor Dialogue: Basic Fit, The Gym Group, & Discount Gyms

The obvious place to start is the trading update, today. You mentioned you were impressed with sales retention. Do you have any comments on what you think might be driving that 80% retention rate?

Investor Dialogue: Naked Wines

When I look into this space, I guess the first place to start is, how to map out the competitive landscape; who really competes with who? Could you describe how you see Wix positioned in a world of Squarespace, Shopify, GoDaddy and so on?

Investor Dialogue: Wix

How do you look at long run total loss frequency?

Investor Dialogue: Copart

I think the first place to start is the Allscripts acquisition which was interesting news. What were your first thoughts when you saw the news on the size of the asset, it being potentially new territory for Constellation?

Investor Dialogue: Constellation Software

Firstly, how do you compare the model of used car dealers like CarMax or Carvana to the traditional dealers?

Investor Dialogue: Carvana vs CarMax

I think a good place to start would be on online furniture, more broadly. One question that I’ve been exploring is, how competitive is the online furniture model, versus offline players?

Investor Dialogue: Wayfair

Clearly, the first place to start is on the short report. What were your original views when you read the report?

Investor Dialogue: Evolution Gaming Short Report

Anonymous

Amazon.com Inc

Google

Microsoft Corporation

Uber Technologies Inc

HEICO Corporation

Spotify Technology S.A.

Naked Wines plc

Constellation Software Inc

TransDigm Group Incorporated

Airbus SE

Wayfair Inc

Tesla Inc

The Boeing Company

Sony Group Corporation

Carvana Co

Just Eat Takeaway.com N.V.

Burford Capital Limited

LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton, Société Européenne

Omni Bridgeway Limited

Danaher Corporation

2 or 3-sided marketplaces or platforms that aim to achieve network effects.

Marketplaces & Platforms

Retailers that own supply, distribution, or delivery assets to provide a differentiated customer experience.

Vertically Integrated Retailer

Physical Infra & Networks

Companies that aim to use regular accretive M&A of typically smaller companies as a cornerstone of strategy.

Serial Acquirer

SaaS and on-premise software with a focus on vertical market offerings.

B2B Software

Companies with trademark, copyright, or patented IP or consumer brands with heritage and pricing power.

Unique IP & Brands

Companies selling mission-critical components or services with low-cost- high-benefit, high switching costs, and embedded in customer workflows.


Mission Critical Products & Services

A company designed to be the lowest cost provider in the market


Low Cost Operators

Insurance, reinsurance, and all categories of specialty finance, asset managers, etc.

Insurers & Financials

Manufacturers with an installed base of product that typically generates consumable, maintenance or other recurring revenue.


OEMs w/ Installed Base

One-stop shops within a fragmented supply and customer base.

B2B Middlemen

B2C and B2B auctions and classifieds platforms.

Auctions & Classifieds

Firms that license trademarks to third-party operators.

Franchisors

Value of the product increases as the user or customer base increases.

Network Effects

High financial cost and time of customers switching to a competitor. Includes productivity loss from downtime, changing routine, and retraining staff.

Switching Costs

Per unit cost declines as units produced increase. Scale economies also include procurement scale and distribution network density.

Scale Economies

Loyalty and trust drives higher pricing power.

Brand Equity

Operational and learning process that drives higher quality products and / or lower prices vs competitors.


Process Power

Entrant has a superior business model (lower costs and / or ability to charge higher prices given the higher product value) that incumbents cannot replicate without significant cannibalisation of existing business.

Counter Positioning

Preferential access to a unique resource that drives value such as management, technology, patents, property, etc.

Explore our IP Dialogues

IP Investor Dialogues are hosted by In Practise. They involve 4-8 professional investors in dialogue about the value creation levers and risk factors of a specific business. The discussion is transcribed and anonymized - no identities are released.