MI337: The Power of Alignment: Strategies From A Fund Manager w/ Jeremy Kokemor

在最近一期的《千禧一代投资》（Millennial Investing）节目中，主持人凯尔·格里夫（Kyle Grieve）与Righttail Capital的创始人杰里米·科科莫尔（Jeremy Kokomoor）进行了深入交流，探讨了他独特的投资理念和基金管理实践。科科莫尔曾供职于普信集团（T. Rowe Price），他强调高度精选、长期持有和集中投资的方法，旨在与投资者建立深度一致性。 Righttail Capital的基石之一是其独特的收费结构，灵感来源于沃伦·巴菲特（Warren Buffett）的“0/6/25”模式。与大多数无论业绩如何都收取管理费的基金不同，Righttail不收取管理费。相反，它对任何超过6%年化门槛（hurdle）的业绩收取25%的报酬。科科莫尔力推这种模式，因为它能与投资者建立高度一致性，确保只有在客户获得可观回报时，他才能获利。他坦率地承认放弃稳定收入流所带来的财务挑战，并指出这是这种模式在业内罕见的主要原因。除了收费模式，科科莫尔通过自身成为Righttail的最大投资者来促进一致性，无论是按美元金额计算还是按其净资产百分比计算。此外，他的个人习惯也确保他在决策时处于最佳精神状态。他还提供了一种仅收取管理费（1.25%）的选项，以满足不同投资者的偏好，并指出其合伙人对这两种选择的偏好出乎意料地平均。 科科莫尔拒绝传统的“价值”或“成长”标签，坚称所有成功的投资最终都旨在以合理的价格寻找优质企业。他的首要考量是企业质量，价格是次要但仍至关重要的考量因素。他认为安全边际不仅仅是低价，更是内在的企业质量：强大的资产负债表、卓越的管理团队和可持续的竞争优势。这些特质使公司在经济下行时期能够采取“攻势”，在较弱的竞争对手苦苦挣扎时抢占市场份额。 从量化角度看，科科莫尔关注公司的再投资跑道（reinvestment runway）以及其能实现的增量回报率。他寻找那些能够深思熟虑地将现金流进行再投资，从而产生更大未来资本和现金流的企业。从定性角度看，这意味着投资于拥有强大“护城河”（moats）的公司——即可持续的竞争优势，能保护它们免受竞争，并使其保持高资本回报率。他以O'Reilly Auto Parts和NVR为例。O'Reilly是持续增长投资（新店、分销）的典范，为增量资本带来了惊人的回报。NVR是一家房屋建筑商，其“轻资产”模式引人注目，即通过使用期权避免拥有土地所有权，以及其积极的、创造价值的股票回购计划。这导致了“低得离谱”的股本数量和巨大的长期业绩，尽管与同行相比，其估值看起来可能很高。 科科莫尔采用8到15只股票的集中投资组合，致力于成为每项持股的专家。这使得当投资表现良好时能产生显著影响，而当投资表现不佳时，下行风险也易于管理。他根据先前的知识、对投资卓越性的认知以及在持有公司过程中不断学习的意愿来建仓，通常以5%的仓位开始，如果业绩和信心增强，会随着时间推移加仓。他对市值保持灵活性，尽管他目前最小的持仓约为50亿美元，但他表示希望未来能找到更多小盘、高潜力的企业。 他的投资节奏很慢，通常每年只进行0到3项新投资。这种低换手率使他能够持续深化对现有持仓的理解，并在没有部署资本压力的情况下探索新行业。他指出，市场错位时期（例如新冠疫情早期）往往是提升投资组合质量的最佳机会。 在估值方面，科科莫尔采用“债券数学”（bond math）方法，通过将其现金收益率、未经再投资的增长（例如市场主导地位）以及再投资带来的增长（以高回报率部署资本）相加，来计算一项投资的内部收益率（IRR）。他使用贴现现金流（DCF）和传统倍数作为“合理性检验”，尤其对于高增长、高估值的公司，以确保预期的回报率是合理的。这种方法帮助他理解为什么一家看似昂贵的企业仍然可能是一项卓越的长期投资，原因在于其再投资能力。 在地域方面，科科莫尔主要关注北美地区（美国和加拿大），因为他了解那里的法治体系和对股东友好的监管环境。他对其他发达市场持开放态度，但避免新兴市场，因为那里的监管框架不够清晰。他避开生物科技等特定科学专业知识至关重要的行业，以及金属和采矿等依赖大宗商品的行业，理由是难以预测大宗商品价格，且公司对其核心产品控制力有限。他的能力圈包括具有强大进入壁垒的行业，例如专业分销商、某些商业服务、软件和受监管的垄断企业（如铁路、废物管理），以及在其他具有挑战性的行业中独特的公司，如房屋建筑行业的NVR。 杰里米·科科莫尔的投资方法特点是深入研究、耐心，以及对拥有强大竞争优势和明智资本配置的高质量企业的不懈关注，所有这些都以旨在最大化投资者一致性的收费结构为支撑。

In a recent episode of "Millennial Investing," host Kyle Grieve chatted with Jeremy Kokomoor, founder of Righttail Capital, delving into his distinctive investment philosophy and fund management practices. Kokomoor, who previously worked at T. Rowe Price, emphasizes a highly selective, long-term, and concentrated approach, aiming for deep alignment with his investors. A cornerstone of Righttail Capital is its unconventional fee structure, inspired by Warren Buffett's 0/6/25 model. Unlike most funds that charge a management fee regardless of performance, Righttail imposes no management fee. Instead, it earns 25% of any performance above a 6% annual hurdle. Kokomoor champions this model for its strong alignment with investors, ensuring he only profits when clients achieve substantial returns. He openly acknowledges the financial challenges of foregoing a steady income stream, citing it as a primary reason for its rarity in the industry. Beyond fees, Kokomoor fosters alignment by being Righttail's largest investor himself, both in dollar terms and as a percentage of his net worth, alongside personal habits that ensure he's in the best frame of mind for decision-making. He also offers a management-fee-only option (1.25%) to cater to different investor preferences, noting a surprisingly even split among his partners. Kokomoor rejects the conventional "value" or "growth" labels, asserting that all successful investing ultimately seeks quality businesses at fair prices. His priority is business quality, with price being a secondary but still crucial consideration. He views margin of safety not just as a low price, but also as inherent business quality: strong balance sheets, excellent management, and sustainable competitive advantages. These attributes allow companies to play "offense" during economic downturns, gaining market share while weaker competitors struggle. Quantitatively, Kokomoor focuses on a company's reinvestment runway and the incremental rates of return it can achieve. He seeks businesses that can thoughtfully reinvest their cash flow to generate even greater future capital and cash flow. Qualitatively, this translates to investing in companies with strong "moats" – sustainable competitive advantages that protect them from competition and allow them to maintain high returns on capital. He highlights O'Reilly Auto Parts and NVR as examples. O'Reilly exemplifies continuous investment in growth (new stores, distribution), yielding phenomenal returns on incremental capital. NVR, a homebuilder, stands out for its asset-light model, avoiding land ownership by using options, and its aggressive, value-creating share buyback program, which has led to an "absurdly low" share count and tremendous long-term performance despite appearing optically expensive compared to peers. Embracing a concentrated portfolio of 8 to 15 names, Kokomoor dedicates his time to becoming an expert on each holding. This allows for significant impact when investments perform well and manageable downside when they falter. He enters positions based on prior knowledge, perceived investment greatness, and a willingness to learn more as he owns the business, often starting with a 5% allocation and adding over time if performance and conviction grow. He remains flexible on market capitalization, though his current smallest holding is around $5 billion, expressing a desire to find more smaller, high-potential businesses in the future. His investment cadence is slow, typically making zero to three new investments per year. This low turnover allows him to continuously deepen his understanding of existing holdings and explore new industries without pressure to deploy capital. He notes that periods of market dislocation, like early COVID-19, often present the best opportunities to upgrade portfolio quality. For valuation, Kokomoor employs a "bond math" approach, calculating an investment's internal rate of return (IRR) by summing its cash earnings yield, growth without reinvestment (e.g., market dominance), and growth from reinvestment (capital deployed at high rates). He uses discounted cash flow (DCF) and traditional multiples as sanity checks, especially for high-growth, high-multiple companies, ensuring the projected returns are reasonable. This methodology helps him appreciate why a seemingly expensive business might still be a superior long-term investment due to its reinvestment capabilities. Geographically, Kokomoor focuses primarily on North America (US and Canada) due to his understanding of their rule of law and shareholder-friendly regulations. He is open to other developed markets but avoids emerging markets where regulatory frameworks are less clear. He steers clear of industries like biotech, where specific scientific expertise is paramount, and commodity-dependent sectors like metals and mining, citing the difficulty of predicting commodity prices and the limited control companies have over their core product. His circle of competence includes industries with strong barriers to entry, such as specialized distributors, certain business services, software, and regulated monopolies (e.g., railroads, waste management), as well as unique companies in otherwise challenging industries, like NVR in homebuilding. Jeremy Kokomoor's approach is characterized by deep research, patience, and a relentless focus on high-quality businesses with strong competitive advantages and intelligent capital allocation, all underpinned by a fee structure designed for maximum investor alignment.