John Sevior Quotes
112 John Sevior Quotes (Airlie Funds Management, Sevvie Quotes)
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Companies don’t change much but the prices do…
John Sevior
Investment is so psychologically challenging because you have got to sell when everyone is exuberant, that’s hard. And you have got to buy when the lights are flickering, when it is on the way out…
John Sevior
You don’t get a good investment idea every day.
John Sevior
It’s never totally clear…
John Sevior
I’m naturally a rainy day guy.
John Sevior
I think good people run good companies.
John Sevior
[In October 2003.] The reason we turn up to work is because we have a half decent chance to beat the market.
John Sevior
[In August 2005.] If you look through our portfolios historically, you'll find a disproportionate share of pretty dull, unexciting companies that have a very strong history of just doing sensible things by shareholders.
John Sevior
[In August 2005.] We look for businesses that are sustainable, that have a history of making money.
John Sevior
[In August 2005.] Money tends to go where it's best rewarded…
John Sevior
[In October 2008.] Fear provides opportunities…
John Sevior
[In October 2008.] A time of fear is actually a time of opportunity…
John Sevior
[In September 2012.] A lot of investing is avoiding the mistakes and having a method rooted in common sense that is quite repeatable.
John Sevior
[On being a great investor.] You almost need to be kind of born a little different – well, not born different, but just used to making uncomfortable decisions.
John Sevior
[In September 2012.] I do feel a bit of a dinosaur because there are more and more long-short funds and fewer and fewer long-only funds. But it is my game.
John Sevior
[In September 2012.] In the end, the only thing that matters is performance.
John Sevior
[In September 2012.] Maybe… my values are outdated, but it used to be about relationships and trust, something that is enduring. It feels so transactional now.
John Sevior
[In March 2014.] Usually the numbers tell the story.
John Sevior
[In November 1999.] You've got a dichotomy at the moment. The two main market drivers are earnings and interest rates. On the one hand, recent company AGMs have been very positive, but on the other, you have this trend of rising interest rates which will continue to play on the market's mind.
John Sevior
[In August 2002.] There are a lot of stocks that are fairly priced but in essence there isn't a lot of value around. The stocks [that we are most interested in] have held their ground or gone up and the stocks that have fallen most heavily are not attractively priced yet. We're seeing a lot of price movement but it's not throwing up much in the way of opportunities.
John Sevior
[In August 2002.] We're looking for companies that have a strong business and are more resilient and predictable in their earnings than the general market.
John Sevior
[In August 2002.] There are stocks that have a greater level of predictability in their earnings and dividends through the economic cycle. These are generally companies that pay a reasonable level of income so you're not relying entirely on capital growth. You're looking for companies that are well managed and attractively priced.
John Sevior
[In August 2002.] Value is a little more difficult to find than it was a few months ago. The better results tend to come out early so most of the results we've seen have been pretty solid, they've been at or above market expectations and this is just continuing a trend of the last few years.
John Sevior
[In September 2002 on AMP.] They have said ‘trust us, we have things covered’ but clearly they have not and the business needs more capital to carry on.
John Sevior
[In October 2002 on IAG paying $1.9 billion for Aviva’s Australasian assets.] I think they paid a full price. [On achieving a stated $160 million stated by IAG in cost savings.] Historically these things are, almost without exception, much harder once you get inside a business.
John Sevior
[In October 2003.] Some people try to pick a lot of fund management styles and what they often end up with is a very expensive index fund. It is very difficult to outperform the market by homogenising products like that. Sometimes the more styles you use, the more fees you pay.
John Sevior
[In October 2003.] Our approach has always been that we look for quality companies to invest in first and then we look at the value those companies represent before we buy them. We don't want to own lots of great companies that are too expensive.
John Sevior
[In October 2003.] We pick stocks freely. The reason we turn up to work is because we have a half decent chance to beat the market.
John Sevior
[On NAB in April 2004 without Don Argus.] A very strong person created a very weak culture to follow. That's what's really annoyed me, I think. All the problems NAB have got into, stem from that, and there's not enough skill at management or at Board level to handle that. And I think that's what has annoyed me most, that one guy who has been portrayed as an icon, a titan of Australian industry didn't really prepare the ground for his successor, for the shape of the Board and that's what's really annoyed me most. I think that's the sign of a great leader, and he was found wanting in that area.
John Sevior
[In February 2005.] We think it will be another strong year for mergers and acquisitions. [On high valuations.] As fund managers, we think companies should keep their hands in their pockets ... but history tells us that won't happen.
John Sevior
[In August 2005.] After two years of 20-odd per cent returns ' and that hasn't happened a hell of a lot in the past 100 years '” I think it is going to be a lot tougher in the next 12 months to make the kind of returns people have made in the past two years.
John Sevior
[In August 2005.] The banking sector ‘the bank and insurance sector or financial services’ which is more than 30 per cent of our market, has really had a tailwind for the past 10 years, driven by a long-run decline in interest rates, a quantum leveraging of personal balance sheets in Australia, and a long-run cost-cutting program. A lot of those benefits have exhausted themselves. The banking sector is going to have a much tougher run in the next two or three years.
John Sevior
[In August 2005.] We feel a little uncomfortable talking about sectors in the market because it's not really how we go about investing.
John Sevior
[In August 2005.] We try to spend a lot of time with management to understand the motivation and level of passion that management have in running companies; the level of discipline and genuine focus on the interests of shareholders. So we try to weed out the companies that are going to best serve unit-holders' interests through a mix of sensible growth and capital management.
John Sevior
[In August 2005.] You look for track record. One of the criteria is a company's got to have at least five years' earnings history before we invest in it. The tech boom came and went and we didn't invest in any of those companies because none had a track record… We've stuck to those basic principles over a long period and we've tended to be well rewarded for it.
John Sevior
[In August 2005.] I spend time with management. That's the best part of the job, meeting the people running the businesses. We try to meet a good mix of management, from the managing director, finance director, to line managers, who, I guess, are less tainted by the constant barrage of investors, analysts and fund managers asking them questions about the business. So we'd like to get a feel for the people that are actually running the divisions, making the day-to-day decisions, as well the people higher up that are thinking more laterally or strategically about the business and the industry.
John Sevior
[In August 2005.] We look for businesses that are sustainable, that have a history of making money. And we look at that history through good and bad times through the business cycle. We look at companies that have good balance sheets.
John Sevior
[In August 2005.] We invest in very conservatively financed companies. That, inevitably, provides opportunities for companies either to make sensible acquisitions or to manage their balance sheets more aggressively.
John Sevior
[In August 2005.] We look for companies that have market positions that are unique, either in terms of oligopolistic markets, like Australian banking, or duopolistic, like brewing, or in commodity businesses that are well placed. So we look for sustainability of the business, a history of earnings and a history of companies making sound capital management decisions.
John Sevior
[In August 2005.] CBA is a wonderful business…
John Sevior
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