InvestorInsights: Anonymous Value Investor

This month, we’ve interviewed one of the leading value investors in India who describes himself as an “old fashioned Graham style value investor who has taken a lot of knocks in his 30+ years investment experience.” He has requested anonymity – and thus we have named him Anonymous Value Investor or AVI – but we are sure you would realize after reading this interview how his amazing insights fit his above-mentioned description. Let’s start right away.

SN: What are the key factors that shaped your life as a value investor? What inspired you because I believe there would not be many value investors in India when you started, no Internet, no people to guide, not much research etc.?

AVI: I didn’t start out as a value investor. I started out analyzing bonds and businesses. And that continues to have a huge imprint on all my investment behaviour and thinking. As I see it, there’s absolutely no difference between a bond and an equity. The only difference is that in one there is no maturity and second the coupon rate has growth. Whereas in bond the coupon rate is fixed. But the method of looking at either a bond or an equity share is absolutely identical. There’s no difference. This is what John Burr Williams said way back in 1930s. And I think it’s incredibly relevant today.

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