Chris Bloomstran – What Makes a Quality Company – [Invest Like the Best, EP.141]

My guest this week is Chris Bloomstran, the president and chief investment officer of Semper Augustus Investments Group. He became famous in investing circles a few years back for his incredibly detailed investigations of Berkshire Hathaway. While we do cover Berkshire towards the end of the conversation, we spend most of our time talking about what makes for a quality business. I loved some of his angles on the current landscape, including our discussion of companies like Richemont and Disney which are actively taking distribution back in house. Please enjoy our conversation.

Show Notes

1:18 – (First Question) – Largest investing error

4:52 – Defining quality investor and their investment
strategy

11:48 – Incremental return on capital and other themes that
they focus on with investments

15:33 – Importance of unique business model

22:58 – Ownership of the customer relationship

28:06 – Bringing distribution back in house

29:55 – Doing something unique with owned distribution

32:40 – His thoughts on growth and value

            32:42 – Chuck Akre podcast episode

37:12 – History of his interest in Berkshire Hathaway and he
characterizes the business

53:29 – How is Berkshire protected into the future

59:17 – Most important trends in adjustments

1:08:00 – Which sectors or industries would he focus on

1:10:02 – Most intriguing business he’s unlikely to own

1:11:44 – Kindest thing anyone has done for him