What Would Ben Graham Do Now? : A New Value Investing Playbook for a Global Age

by Towson, Jeffrey

• ISBN13: 9780132173230
• ISBN10: 0132173239
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-11
• Publisher: FT Press

Summary

Jeffrey Towson modernizes value investing for high-growth emerging markets, introducing techniques he mastered working for Prince Alwaleed, the "Arabian Warren Buffet." Retaining Ben Graham's focus on price and quality, he integrates crucial values of political access, reputation, and capabilities. Next, he presents investment "playbooks" designed to help you profitably navigate tomorrow's titanic market collisions.

Author Biography

Jeffrey Towson is a specialist in global and cross-border investing, and is Managing Partner of the Towson Group, an investment firm based in New York, Dubai, and Shanghai. He previously served as Head of Direct Investments for Middle East North Africa and Asia Pacific for Prince Waleed, arguably the world’s first private global investor and nicknamed the “Arabian Warren Buffett” by Time Magazine.

 

Towson is a frequent writer and speaker on the topic of global investing (www.jeffreytowson.com). He is a Fellow at Cambridge University’s Judge School of Business and cohead of the Current Topics in Chinese Strategy and Investment Course at Peking University Guanghua Business School in Beijing.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xv
About the Author	p. xvi
Preface	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
The Struggle to Go Global	p. 2
What Would Ben Graham Do?	p. 3
About That Nagging Feeling That You're Missing Out	p. 5
The Search for the Opportunity to Add Value	p. 6
Intelligent Global Investing	p. 8
The Prince Waleed Years	p. 13
Rethinking Value in a Global Age	p. 17
A Value-Based Worldview	p. 21
Rederiving Graham's Method	p. 31
Value Point	p. 45
B2B: Back to the Balance Sheet	p. 50
Putting It All Together	p. 55
Value Keys	p. 60
The More Things Change	p. 63
…the More They Stay the Same	p. 64
Investing in Politicized Markets	p. 67
Mapping the New Political-Economic World Order	p. 70
Liar's Poker and Liar's Dice	p. 71
An Aside on the China-Versus-U.S. Question	p. 74
Rise of the Arab and Asian Godfathers	p. 76
The New Political-Economic Powers Are Deal-Makers, Too	p. 79
Where the Visible Hand of Government Helps Investors	p. 80
How Political Access Adds Value	p. 87
Princes, SOEs, and Government Sachs	p. 87
Political Access Success Stories	p. 91
The Value of Political Access in State Capitalist Systems	p. 92
The Value of Political Access in Godfather Economies	p. 95
Investment Strategies for Politicized Markets	p. 96
Live by Politics, Die by Politics	p. 101
Political Access by Locals	p. 104
The World is Biased	p. 107
The Room Looks Different Depending on Where You're Sitting	p. 110
The Disproportionate Bias of Western Investors	p. 112
Reputation Lets Your Capital Punch Above Its Weight Class	p. 114
How to Create an Emerging-Market ATM	p. 117
The Profits and Perils of Reputation	p. 125
Institutional Investors on the Frontier	p. 126
Hong Kong, Dubai, and the Path of Least Resistance	p. 131
ôDanger Alligators. No Swimming. Survivors Will Be Prosecuted.ö	p. 134
Reputation and Capital Were Not Enough to Save Danone's China Venture	p. 136
Coca-Cola Rides Its Reputation to 1.3 Billion New Customers	p. 138
Emerging-Market Shenanigans	p. 140
Capability Deals in Theory	p. 145
From the New to the Newer World	p. 148
Most Capabilities Are Local	p. 158
Crossing the Governance Rubicon	p. 160
Value Point's Deep Well	p. 162
Capability Deals in Practice	p. 169
Winning Long-Term in Difficult Environments	p. 172
Winning Short-Term in Really Difficult Environments	p. 179
Foreign Versus Local, Capability Stampedes, and Global Wing Walking	p. 181
Lessons from the Saudis	p. 184
Global Tycoons, Value Tanks, and Other ôGo for the Jugularö Strategies	p. 189
Global Tycoon Investing	p. 189
Rethinking from Good to Great	p. 191
ôValue Tanksö	p. 198
ôDirect Spectacularö Investments	p. 202
Rethinking Good to Great Environments	p. 204
Invest Like a Global Tycoon	p. 207
The Best Deals Are Simple Deals	p. 209
It's Still About Price and Quality	p. 211
From Screening to Networking	p. 212
Picking Your Hunting Ground	p. 217
Look Again Before You Leap	p. 220
Filling Your Global Dance Card	p. 223
Moving the Castle to an Island	p. 225
All Your Eggs in One Basket Versus All Your Baskets Tied Together	p. 227
The Intelligent Global Investor	p. 230
A Global Investment Playbook	p. 235
Buy Underpriced Good-to-Great Stocks	p. 237
Buy Great Companies on Their Knees	p. 238
Buy ôPotentially Greatö Companies, and Make Them Great	p. 241
Launch a Value Tank for Global Acquisition and Development Deals	p. 243
Build a ôDirect Spectacularö Investment	p. 245
Buy or Build a ôBird on a Rhinoö Investment in a High Growth Environment	p. 246
Buy Small-Medium Private Companies in a Rising Environment	p. 249
Buy Cheap Companies in Environments or Situations That Others Avoid	p. 252
Structure Political Deals with Guaranteed Returns, or Buy Companies with Politically Limited Competition	p. 258
A Multiprong Approach to Global Investing	p. 263
After Markets Collide: The Next Twenty Years	p. 265
The New Wall Street	p. 266
How to Become a Global Tycoon	p. 268
Value Investors Should Go Global	p. 270
Business Development Executives Are the Uncrowned Princes of Global Investing	p. 271
Private Equity as the Value-Added Partner of Choice	p. 275
Accelerating Out of the Downturn	p. 277
Dedicated to the Skeptical Optimists	p. 279
Notes	p. 281
Index	p. 287
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