WEST PALM BEACH, FL (HEDGECO.NET) – Warren Buffett, the world second richest businessman after Bill Gates, has a enthusiastic following of investor/fans. Shuhei Abe, founder and chief executive of Sparx Asset Management in Tokyo, is so fond of the investing philosophy of the billionaire, that every Friday at 7 a.m., he gathers 20 of his analysts for a mandatory two-hour study session over coffee. He calls it the “Buffett Club.â€Â
Abe says that he has adapted the “diversify†strategy of Warren Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and it has helped him win mandates from the world’s biggest pension funds and create the largest hedge-fund manager in Asia.â€ÂThe principles of Buffett are more true here in Japan†than in the United States, said Abe in a interview with AsianInvestor “Because the market is inefficient, you look to unlock value.â€Â
The $2 billion Sparx Value Creation Fund, for instance, has investments in Shimano, the world’s No.1 bicycle- parts maker, and Tsumura, which controls almost 90 percent of Japan’s market for Chinese herbal medicine. In the past six months, both have outperformed the benchmark Topix market indicator, which is down 8.5 percent.
According to figures from AsiaHedge, the fund has more than $8 billion of the total in hedge fund-related assets, which make Sparx the largest hedge-fund manager in Asia. Abe points to Tsumura ($1.76 billion) and Shimano (36 million shares), two of his earliest investments for the Value Creation Fund and companies he has also used as model cases for his “Buffett Club†sessions.
Alex Akesson
Contributing Writer
HedgeCo.Net
Email: [email protected]
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