Kerr Neilson Quotes
101 Kerr Neilson Quotes
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[In May 2007] The real cause for astonishment is just how strong the world has been over the past year.
Kerr Neilson
[On Singapore Airlines in May 2007] It will do better than QANTAS, it has great connections into India and China.
Kerr Neilson
[On investing in Japan in November 2010] 'Many of you may think we are boneheaded to have any money in Japan, and perhaps you are right. But remember there are all these companies out there that are doing interesting things, and that’s what we are trying to find in Japan.
Kerr Neilson
[On Japanese companies in 2010] There are many examples of companies that have immense strength in their markets, 20 to 40 percent market shares in those businesses globally, and you don’t have that if you’re not good at what you do.
Kerr Neilson
[In November 2010] We made a mistake by not being long enough in the Australian dollar.
Kerr Neilson
[In July 2009] We’ve had an incredible year this year – we’ve made people money.
Kerr Neilson
[On feeling a sense of satisfaction in 2009] That would be even more vain than I would allow. You want to remember the moment because you will have other moments when you look like an idiot.
Kerr Neilson
[On his investing technique being like the tortoise and the hare fable with him being the tortoise in 2009] We tend to hold our value and build wealth by avoiding the downturns, so we give away some of the upside in boom times. If we lose money, our clients aged 55-70 are not going to get it back. This is the product of their life's work. That's our attitude it's other people's money. And the market is your ultimate judge.
Kerr Neilson
As investors, the paradox is you have to listen to the market and yet form an independent opinion. You cannot ever be in a cocoon of isolation where you pay no heed. At times you will be at total disagreement and that's where you need a lot of character. That sense of independence is rare as there's a tendency to benchmark hug ... We think that's a silly way to run money. You're actually being given a fiduciary role to look after people's money.
Kerr Neilson
We accept business on the basis that we are allowed to manage it on the terms that will best make a return. We will not be tied down. You have to be able to give yourself the option of staying right out of the market if that is what you consider to be the appropriate position.
Kerr Neilson
[On having strong opinions on the market and being able to back it up with action] Some are good at telling the story but forget to pull the trigger.
Kerr Neilson
We pick stocks; we're not too concerned with labels like growth or value. We just want to buy companies we think are mispriced. Neglect does not normally reside in high valuations.
Kerr Neilson
Talk about different styles. But if you're managing with a low tracking error (staying close to the index) you can't do anything but follow the tail of the market, otherwise the tracking goes out and you're failing in your mandate . . . It's following, not leading.
Kerr Neilson
[On someone trying to copy a stockmarket index] If you're managing with a low tracking error you can't do anything but follow the tail of the market..
Kerr Neilson
[On making investment decisions that can be contrarian in December 2003 it can be] A bit lonely.
Kerr Neilson
We're not trying to shoot the lights out every moment. We see risk out there so let's try to control it as well as make money.
Kerr Neilson
[On his and his wife Judiths’ ‘White Rabbit Art Gallery’ in July 2009] It’s a public gallery but also a museum in a way. It’s designed to record the unfolding adventure of China’s contemporary art.
Kerr Neilson
[On contemporary art] The more you’re exposed to it, the more you get it.
Kerr Neilson
[On his biggest break] Making the very big choice to leave one country [South Africa in 1983] and being allowed to settle in Australia.
Kerr Neilson
[On his biggest achievement] Having found a wonderful profession [funds management] that is aligned to one's inherent personality.
Kerr Neilson
[In 2009 on his biggest regret] Shorting US financial shares too early.
Kerr Neilson
[In 2009 on his best investment] Aggressively accumulating a lot of Peruvian shares when Sendero Luminoso [the terrorist organisation Shining Path] was attempting to take control over all of that country.
Kerr Neilson
[On his worst investment] Too many shockers to recount.
Kerr Neilson
[On his personal philosophy] Being thankful for the abilities one has been given and not wasting them.
Kerr Neilson
[November 2012] Economic uncertainty is obviously making investors jittery.
Kerr Neilson
[In November 2012] While predictability is all the fashion at present, it will not always be so.
Kerr Neilson
[In November 2012] Our short sales in aggregate have cost us money in the rising markets of the last two years. Positions are now trimmed…
Kerr Neilson
[In August 2012] We are very aware that we have done a poor job over the last two years in managing some of our funds.
Kerr Neilson
There is no deterioration in the efficacy of stock picking.
Kerr Neilson
We are quite sure that in this globalised word, mergers and acquisitions will remain an important feature of the landscape.
Kerr Neilson
The process of neglected stock picking works.
Kerr Neilson
We like what we own and this has tended to result in profitable investing in the past. We do not see why it is different this time round.
Kerr Neilson
[In August 2011] We cannot see any easy fixes… This is a time of belt-tightening and rebalancing.
Kerr Neilson
The unwinding of credit binges entails the very reversal of that which went before it regardless of the desires of expedient politicians pandering to their dismayed electorates.
Kerr Neilson
There is a self-regulating aspect to capital allocation at the company level.
Kerr Neilson
Governments can and do change their behaviour towards the corporate sector but are highly dependent on entrepreneurs to create opportunities and to provide productive jobs.
Kerr Neilson
To establish a business there is a need to raise seed capital to meet the pay of employees and to fund working and fixed assets until profits are earned.
Kerr Neilson
To the extent that a company generates a superior return on invested funds (either net capital or equity/book value), the share price will trade at a premium to its book value. This so, to mirror the company’s ability to sustainably earn a superior return on capital and the likelihood of it being able to find suitable avenues for fresh investment and hence to keep growing.
Kerr Neilson
Going back over long periods of time we can show that US equities have typically traded in a price earnings ratio band of 12 to 16 times earnings (or its reciprocal, an earnings yield band of between say 6 to 8%) which has incidentally equated to the market selling on about two times book value.
Kerr Neilson
[In December 2011] The projections still leave us with valuations that reveal a degree of fear-induced myopia among investors…
Kerr Neilson
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