Hidden Value Stocks issue for the third quarter ended September 30, 2020, featuring an interview with ValueWorks LLC’s Founder and CIO, Charles Lemonides, discussing the firms investment strategy.
Q2 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
Interview One: Charles Lemonides
Founder, Chief Investment Officer, Portfolio Manager | ValueWorks LLC
Background
Charles Lemonides founded ValueWorks in October 2001 and today leads the firm’s investment research and portfolio management.
He started his career at regional brokerage Gruntal & Co. in the firm’s research department in 1986 and covered risk arbitrage, the banking industry, and special situations. He spearheaded the addition of high yield bonds and distressed securities to the department’s coverage.
In 1994, Charles joined Sterling Advisors, an investment advisory unit of Gruntal & Co. and became Chief Investment Officer in 1995. In 1999 he merged this internal investment practice into the independent advisory firm M&R Capital and was named Chief Investment Officer.
He received his Bachelor’s degree in History from Vassar College and pursued graduate studies in Economics at New York University. He received his CFA designation in 1989.
Q&A With ValueWorks' Charles Lemonides
Could you give our readers a bit of background on ValueWorks and the different investment strategies the firm offers?
ValueWorks is an investment advisory firm I started roughly 20 years ago to try to use our
value investment discipline to give investors a reasonable rate of return in the financial markets.
We basically manage three portfolios: A capital appreciation portfolio designed for nest egg equity exposure in a value discipline; a balanced portfolio that overlays a fixed income component; and a more aggressive portfolio that uses a degree of leverage and short exposure to get the most out of what we bring to the table from our understanding of security prices on the long and short side.
You’ve defined your value approach as “buying the best-quality assets at the best possible prices.” Could you give a bit more detail on what this entails, and why you believe your approach differs from that of other value-focused funds?
What we bring to the table is to really look at a security as a claim against assets, and we try to get those assets at a discount to what they are worth in the real world. And that’s just not metrics-specific or focused on a particular benchmark or particular universe of companies.
