Episode summary
The Long View: Amit Wadhwaney - ’Buying Cheap Has a Number of Attractions’
The Long View
· · Hosts: Ben Johnson, Christine Benz, Amy Arnott · Guests: Amit Wadhwaney
Summary
Amit Wadhwaney argues that value investing works best when it starts with cheapness, survivability, and a deep understanding of business structure rather than macro forecasting. He says trying to predict the economy is usually a bad use of capital, while buying businesses with strong balance sheets, durable models, and low valuations creates a margin of safety that can withstand rising rates, inflation, or market stress.
He frames Moerus as a deliberately narrow, long-term, risk-averse firm built around buying businesses below what a knowledgeable industry buyer would pay. That approach, he says, often leads to holdings that can benefit from corporate actions such as asset sales, spin-offs, buybacks, or takeovers, but those outcomes are a byproduct rather than the goal. He uses examples such as Natura, Tidewater, Valaris, and Dundee to show how trouble, neglect, or industry dislocation can create opportunity.
Wadhwaney also says the firm is not making direct commodity calls even though many holdings are resource-related. The real bet, he argues, is on business model and capital discipline, not on guessing oil or metals prices. Looking at today’s market, he sees plenty of opportunity outside expensive megacaps and thinks the long drought for value investors may be creating a wider field for disciplined buyers.
Key takeaways
- Wadhwaney says macro forecasting is usually not worth the risk because investors are more likely to get it wrong than to gain an edge from it.
- He defines risk as business and financial survivability, not day-to-day stock price volatility.
- Moerus looks for businesses that are cheap relative to what a knowledgeable industry buyer would pay for them.
- Wadhwaney says corporate activity like asset sales, spin-offs, and buybacks is a byproduct of buying cheap, well-capitalized businesses.
- He says resource-linked holdings are not direct commodity bets; the focus is on the underlying business model and capital structure.
- Wadhwaney sees pockets of value even in an expensive U.S. market and thinks opportunity is expanding as value competition thins out.
Notable quotes
“one recurrent forecasting of the macro economy is probably not worth it. You're probably going to get it wrong and you're going to risk a whole bunch of capital on making these judgments”
“if you buy something cheaply and we'll get to what cheap means and you buy something that is strongly capitalized that is has survivability”
“what we're looking for is I would call extreme cheapness. It's not quite buying the dip. It's a bit more buying the crash”
“our approach to cheapness focuses on what you can sell you can basically it's asset based investing in terms of what can the businesses what will they transact for in a sane valued transaction”
How the episode opens
Please stay tuned for important disclosure information at the conclusion of this episode. — Welcome to the long view. I'm Ben Johnson, head of client solutions with Morning Star. — And I'm Amy Arnot, portfolio strategist with Morning Star.
Today's guest on the long view is Amit Badwani, portfolio manager and co-founder at Moira Capital Management. Amit has over 30 years of experience researching and analyzing investment opportunities in developed, emerging and frontier markets worldwide. Prior to co-founding Moira, Amit was a portfolio manager and partner at Third Avenue management where he worked alongside his Moira co-founding partners.
Amit founded the international business at Third Avenue and was the founding manager of the Third Avenue Global Value Fund. the Third Avenue Emerging Markets Fund and the Third Avenue International Value Fund. Earlier in his career, Ame worked at MJW Whitman LLC, a New York-based broker dealer.
Prior to joining MJ Witman, Amit was a paper and forest products analyst at Bunting Warberg, a Canadian brokerage firm. He began his career at Domar, a Canadian forest products company. Amit holds an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago.
He also holds a BA with honors and an MA in economics from Concordia. At Concordia, he was awarded the Sunlife Prize and the Concordia University fellow in economics and he subsequently taught economics classes there. Amit also holds a BS degree in chemical engineering and mathematics from the University of Minnesota.
Well, Amit, welcome to the long view. Thank you so much for joining Amy and I today.
Thank you for having me. — I wanted to start by asking you to tell us a bit about your background and I'm particularly curious about how you caught the investing bug. — Well, I was trained as an engineer and I also studied some math in those days and so I'm kind of a quant person by training.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- value investing
- conviction and survivability
- risk aversion
- industry structure
- value opportunities
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Moerus
Watch the episode
Watch “The Long View: Amit Wadhwaney - ’Buying Cheap Has a Number of Attractions’” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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The Long View, this episode and its artwork belong to Morningstar, Christine Benz - Director of Personal Finance and Retirement Planning, Ben Johnson - Head of Client Solutions, Amy Arnott - Portfolio Strategist. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
