e-fundresearch.com: Mr David Dalgas , you are the fund manager of the Saxo Invest CPH Capital Global Equities fund. When did you take over the responsibility of managing this fund?
David Dalgas: The fund was started in September 2011, but I have been running the strategy since year 2000 when you include the time with my old employer. Before that, I was a portfolio manager with one of the government sponsored funds in Denmark.
e-fundresearch.com: What is the current size of the fund?
David Dalgas: The current size of the fund is 450mn EUR. The total size of the strategy is 1,500mn EUR including segregated accounts.
e-fundresearch.com: Do you also manage other funds or mandates?
David Dalgas: I also run the Saxo Invest CPH Capital Global Consumer Equities, which invests in global consumer names and currently has a total strategy size of 150mn EUR.
e-fundresearch.com: What is the total amount of assets you manage currently?
David Dalgas: 1,650mn EUR.
e-fundresearch.com: How long have you been in the business as a fund manager?
David Dalgas: I’m working as a fund manager since 1998.
e-fundresearch.com: What are the main steps in your investment process and in which area is your competitive edge to add value to investors?
David Dalgas: As a starting point it is important to state that we are a bottom up driven house, this means that we only invest in attractive stocks with at least 20 percent upside. We run a quantitative screening to identify new ideas, then we do a full financial and strategic due diligence. This process includes a full investment thesis, CFROI-models and DCF-models on all positions. Finally we do our risk optimization and risk monitoring, both in terms of have new stocks impact the risk of the portfolio and how the risk of the existing portfolio is changing.
On top of this, we do downside analysis as well. We look at the financial reporting for the last 10-20 years and take the worst numbers in terms of EBITDA margin, topline growth and asset turns and incorporate this into our financial model for the individual company and its sensitivity. For most companies this would mean and close inspection of the 2008 results. To put into context it is impotent to stress that would focus on CFROI (cash flow return on invested capital), which would give us a tilt towards asset light and stable cash generators. On top of this we also do a more traditional study of the moat of the business, the economic moat of any one business is never stable and should always be monitored because it is of paramount importance, when analyzing valuation.
e-fundresearch.com: Which benchmark is most relevant and how should investors compare the fund vs. benchmarks or peer groups?
David Dalgas: Our benchmark is the MSCI All countries. Investors should compare the fund to other global large cap blend strategies that are beta neutral.Our portfolio is long term and very core. The average holding period is more than four years and our turnover year to date is less than 10 percent. Many other managers would say that they are long term but very few would have a 10+ year history with low turnover to back it up. It is also important to say that we would do a full due diligence and full documentation on a company prior to investing – this means that we are not able to make very quick decisions, but we on the other hand make significantly fewer mistakes.
e-fundresearch.com: Which performance did you achieve for the fund YTD and over the past five calendar years in absolute terms and relative to relevant benchmark or other reference indices?
David Dalgas: In 2013 we achieved a performance of 16.30%, about 1% more than the benchmark. The strategy achieved an outperformance in 9 out off 10 years and the average annual outperformance over 10 years was around 4.5 percent.
e-fundresearch.com: What motivates you in your job?
David Dalgas: Every day is different and I decide each day where I want to look for value. I’m in control of how my work is conducted. I have the luxury of working with extremely talented people both externally and internally, which I find highly rewarding. As the rest of the team, I’m also invested in our CPH Capital investment products because it give us the same interest as the clients or as my hero Warren Buffett would say: Eat your own cooking…
e-fundresearch.com: Which other profession would you have considered apart from becoming a fund manager?
David Dalgas: I have always been interested in art and antiques, so I would properly have pursued a position within a company valuating and trading art on behalf of customers.
e-fundresearch.com: Thank You!
