03-Mar-2021: "The manager estimates that the investment return for the Global Value Fund was +0.5% during February. Including tax payments made during the month, the manager estimates that the pre-tax NTA per share at the end of February was $1.1574." I bought some GVF shares today (Thursday 04-Mar-2021) and plan on adding some to my Strawman scorecard also shortly (like, tomorrow, hopefully). I particularly like the latest declared 3 cps FF div, ex-31-Mar, to-be-paid-on 13-May. Assuming they also declare a 3c final (FY) dividend in August, that puts them on a yield of 5.48%, plus franking, and this one if fully franked. Not to be sniffed at. They also provide a hedge of sorts against market downturns, as their returns are largely uncorrelated to market returns, because most of their returns are derived from their unique discount capture strategy - see here: https://www.globalvaluefund.com.au/investment-philosophy/ The fund is run by Miles Staude (portfolio manager) and his wife Emma Davidson, who is head of corporate affairs at GVF and is also on the board of Staude Capital. Staude Capital is Miles and Emma's management company which manages GVF - see here: https://www.globalvaluefund.com.au/ The GVF Board comprises: 1. Chairman and Non-Executive Director, Jonathan Trollip, who is currently non-executive chairman of ASX listed Antipodes Global Investment Company Limited, Future Generation Investment Company Limited and Plato Income Maximser Limited, and a non-executive director of ASX listed Kore Potash Limited. He holds commercial private company directorships with Meridian International Capital Limited, Propel Funeral Partners Limited and BCAL Diagnostics Pty Ltd. Jonathan is involved in the not for profit sector as chairman of Science for Wildlife Limited, and a director of the Watarrka Foundation Limited and the University of Cape Town Australia Alumni Trust. Jonathan worked as a principal of Meridian for the 22 years and prior to that he was a Partner with law firm Herbert Smith Freehills. He holds postgraduate degrees in economics and law, was admitted as a qualified lawyer in England and Australia, and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. 2. Christopher Cuffe AO, Non-Executive Director. Following a five year period with chartered accountants Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co (now KPMG), Chris Cuffe entered the funds management industry in 1985. In 1988 he joined Colonial First State where he was CEO from 1990 until 2003. During this period the company grew from a start-up operation to become Australia’s largest investment manager. In 2003 he then became CEO of the listed Challenger Financial Services Group Limited. In 2006, Chris joined non-profit organisation Social Ventures Australia (SVA) as an Executive Director. Since 2009 Chris has been involved in a portfolio of activities in the investment and non-profit sectors. These activities now include: a. Non Executive Director of listed investment companies Global Value Fund Limited, Antipodes Global Investment Company Limited, Argo Investments Limited and Hearts and Minds Investments Limited (which he is also Chairman of); b. Member of the Investment Committee of UniSuper (the $85 billion superannuation scheme dedicated to people working in Australia’s higher education and research sector) and past director of UniSuper Limited from 20017-2011 and Chairman from 2011-2017; c. Non Executive Director of Ventra Capital, a boutique private debt manager d. Chairman and Founder of Australian Philanthropic Services (a not for profit organisation which inspires, facilitates and educates Australia’s high net worth community and the professional advisers that support them about effective philanthropy) and trustee and portfolio manager of their $115m public ancillary fund; e. Member of the Investment Committees of various ultra high net worth families; f. Member of the Investment Committee of the $4 billion Paul Ramsey Foundation and g. Founder, director and portfolio manager of Third Link Growth Fund (www.thirdlink.com.au), a managed investment scheme (investing in Australian shares) and available to the public whereby all management fees received are donated to charity. Chris holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of NSW and a Diploma from the Securities Institute of Australia. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, a Fellow of the Institute of Company Directors and an Associate of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia. In October 2007 Chris was inducted into the Australian Fund Manager’s RBS Hall of Fame for services to the investment industry. In 2017 he was appointed as an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia. 3. Geoff Wilson AO, Non-Executive Director. Geoff Wilson has over 36 years’ direct experience in investment markets having held a variety of senior investment roles in Australia, the UK and the US. Geoff founded Wilson Asset Management in 1997. Geoff created Australia’s first listed philanthropic wealth creation vehicles, the Future Generation companies. Geoff holds a Bachelor of Science, a Graduate Management Qualification and is a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Geoff Wilson is currently Chairman of WAM Capital Limited, WAM Research Limited, WAM Active Limited, WAM Leaders Limited, WAM Microcap Limited, WAM Alternative Assets and the Australian Stockbrokers Foundation. He is the Founder and a Director of Future Generation Global Investment Company Limited and Future Generation Investment Company Limited and a Director of Australian Leaders Fund Limited, Century Australia Investments Pty Limited, Incubator Capital Limited, Hearts and Minds Investments Limited, Wealth Defender Equities Pty Limited, Wollongong 2022 Limited, Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation, the Australian Fund Managers Foundation, and the Australian Children’s Music Foundation. He is also founder and Director of investment management companies Wilson Asset Management (International) Pty Limited and MAM Pty Limited. In 2018, Geoff was appointed as an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia. 4. Miles Staude, Non-Executive Director & Portfolio Manager. Miles has over seventeen years’ of experience in trading, investment management and research, covering a wide range of financial markets. He is the Portfolio Manager of the Global Value Fund and serves as a Director on the Global Value Fund Board. Under Mirabella’s regulatory licences, Miles has overall responsibility for the GVF portfolio management teams trading and investment management activities. Prior to founding Staude Capital Miles spent ten years as a Portfolio Manager and Investment Analyst at Metage Capital, a London based investment management firm. Before joining Metage he spent five years as a sell-side equity analyst at RBC Capital Markets, based in both Sydney and London. Miles holds an economics degree from the University of Sydney and is a CFA Charterholder. --- INVESTMENT PHILOSOPHY: "We believe that financial markets are generally efficient and that it is difficult to outperform general market indices through active stock selection over the long term. Instead, we believe that sustained market outperformance is best achieved through the purchase of discounted assets: assets that are trading at prices which are below their assessed intrinsic value. This approach is then coupled with an active strategy aimed at capturing the value presented by the discount." "A key feature of this strategy is that it seeks to achieve a lower realized volatility of investment returns than that of a strategy which invests solely in international equities. This lower volatility profile is a function of the underlying exposures of the investments in the portfolio, which will be a wider range of financial assets than just listed equities. The risk profile of the portfolio will benefit from this diversification across asset classes, as well as from the lower volatility exhibited by some of the non-equity assets, such as government and corporate bonds." --- GVF closed today at $1.095, being a 5.4% discount to their $1.1574 pre-tax NTA at the end of February (4 days ago). Because they pay the majority of their net profits out to shareholders every 6 months, only keeping some back occasionally to pad their profit reserve (to allow for the smoothing of dividends, something that a LIC can do, but a LIT - being a trust - generally can't do) - their NTA tends to hover around their $1 IPO price (back in July 2014) plus or minus 10%, usually getting a little higher just before they pay a dividend. Their share price tends to follow their NTA, although usually stays at a small discount below it, like now. They have sometimes traded at around NTA or at a small NTA-premium, but they generally trade a little below their NTA. Looking back, they've mostly traded between 99c and $1.17 except for a brief spike down in mid-2019 and then a large spike down when they got coronered from early-March to early-August last year. They are not a growth stock. They are purely an income play and a company that has demonstrated a prior ability to continue to generate good returns in falling markets, and hold their value when the majority of the market is struggling to do the same. A good income stock to hold in particularly volatile times I find, and a very highly credentialed Board to boot. [I now - once again - hold GVF shares]