Greg Dean, CFA

He finds that the most interesting and profitable area of the market involves smaller businesses still run by talented teams. He tries to find the smallest companies he can so that he can own them for a long time. 

Likes cashflow growth of 15%, doesn't like debt (a performance-enhancing drug). Ideally, businesses that convert earnings to free cashflow, because you can't pay bills with net income.

No, he hasn't seen that. Most people are happy with their S&P exposure. But remember that 90% of the world's listed companies are small caps. From a diversification and a return standpoint, small caps are attractive.

Investors have a hard time selling things that have done the best, but that's often the time to rebalance. It seems that the past few years have seen people rebalancing into things that have done the best, rather than into EMs, small caps, or private markets. He doesn't think that every $1 should go into 7 stocks.

Yes, and he visits the companies themselves. He and his team have been to about 15 countries in total over the past year, meeting with over 300 companies. Part of their job is getting to know the companies and the executives that run those businesses; the best way to do that is in person.

Ace Beverage acquisition got him interested. Some really nice growth coming, but not all segments are growing. So it's not going to give him the consistent 10-15% growth rate of a great company. Last quarter showed 9%.

Note that he's allergic to leverage, and most banks leverage up to give that 12-15% ROE. So he doesn't really love the business model.

This name is small, under $1B, no analyst coverage. Lots of respect for management, should continue to do well. Lends almost exclusively to law firms. Law firms pay out almost all their capital as partner distributions, so they need working capital at times to manage the business. 

Good business, but his Canadian portfolio is 15 businesses, so this one just hasn't made the cut on quality and growth. Quite leveraged, earning a narrow spread. Management change. So big that next step in growth would have to be outside NA to move the needle.

Still owned by founder, second generation. Has done the same thing for a long time; what changed is number of places they could sell to. Good business, but not a great price right now. 

DeepSeek was like a "man overboard" moment for a stock like this, as many own it simply as a beneficiary of data centre buildout. This sentiment makes it harder for the long-term investor.

Levered spread, but competing in niches where it's the largest. Potential for less risk and spread compression. Wishes he'd investigated further when it was cheaper. He wouldn't buy at this level, but it's been 6-9 months since he's taken a close look.

Good business, decent ROIC. Multiple's not inexpensive. Lots of retailers are available under 13x with great ROIC. He continues to meet with management.

Liked that pet food is heavy (harder to purchase online and ship), so thought this would provide more protection. Challenging space, especially for a long-term investor like himself.

Good track record, meaningful insider ownership. Didn't like that it pays out most profit in distributions. Rather than retaining capital to grow, raises equity to do acquisitions. He likes companies being self-financed.

Stock's a lot more cyclical than the company, as it's subject to a lot of sentiment swings in US housing. Good business, founder is still on the board. Too big for him, but a way to get capital-light housing exposure.

Covid was a game-changer -- restaurants were just trying to survive, not spend on capex, so revenue growth slowed. Not a great return over that long a time. High-end restaurant kitchen equipment. Really good track record of acquisitions. North of $10B now, so too big for him now, but he's always liked management and the asset base.

This was Burger King - Brazil. No longer trades.

Always felt it didn't get the credit it deserved. Great business. If Canada wants to be able to better defend itself on the global stage, perhaps it should bring more of the value chain within its borders instead of sending every oil and gas molecule south of the border. This company would have billions to deploy on projects if returns met its hurdle rate.