In the 1990s, I studied Accounting and Finance at the University of Auckland.
I got bored, so I added a conjoint arts degree in Literature and Psychology.
I have to say the secondary set of study gave me more skills for business and investing. Because investing is ultimately about discernment and human behaviour.
There was also a unique experience that shaped my early training. I gained a holiday internship with Ernst & Young in the New Plymouth CBD. My manager promptly assigned me to a business survey being conducted by Waikato University. This involved anonymously entering key metrics across their entire client base.
New Plymouth CBD. Source: MkNZ24 / Wikimedia Commons
In other words, I got to see firsthand which businesses were profitable and which struggled. At that time, in Taranaki, it was very profitable being a surgeon, vehicle dealer, or contractor to the booming oil industry.
These days, running a night trading desk in our business, I spend my time scouring the developed world for great businesses at temporarily undervalued stock prices.
Yes, we’re professional scroungers, forever trying to find some fine quality that the wider market has ignored. We’ve learnt a few things over the years:
- It’s harder to find mispriced opportunities in much-analysed markets like the US.
- Good opportunities are often counter-cyclical. They are mispriced because current conditions cause headwinds. But if that can change in a year or two… well, today’s price could be very interesting.
- Developed markets that aren’t expected to grow much can sometimes surprise drastically. For example, we did very well from Italy in 2025, picking up some bargains in 2024.
- You need to be able to discern quality. The quality of the business and its products or services. The quality of the market in which it exists — is it free-for-all or can a great business carve out a niche? And the quality of the people — do they have entrepreneurial experience and skin in the game?
- Sometimes speculative opportunities can present outsized potential; even a modest allocation may be justified for those willing to take on higher risk.
There are many more factors to consider.
But today, I want to look at a business in one of the world’s most profitable industries…
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