David Iben is the Lead Portfolio Manager of the Kopernik Global All-Cap and Global Unconstrained strategies, and the Co-Portfolio Manager of the Kopernik International and Global Long-Term Opportunities strategies. He is the Chief Investment Officer, Managing Member, Founder, and Chairman of the Board of Governors of Kopernik Global Investors.
For his latest commentary, our CIO Dave Iben looks at the Fed's implicit loosening of monetary policy as a result of the liquidity provided in the wake of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. He once again takes readers on a journey down the migratory flow of the Cantillon River in search of scarce, necessary assets that hold their value in inflationary times. Describing how the market’s approach to valuing hard assets is misguided, Dave lays out how the value of those assets increases with time and describes Kopernik’s approach to valuing these scarce, necessary resources.
As the firm approaches its 10-year anniversary, CIO Dave Iben reaffirms Kopernik’s unchanging philosophy and process and describes opportunities we are finding as we enter our second decade.
In his new commentary, Kopernik CIO Dave Iben discusses how, after a four-decade long period when central bankers were idolized, someone has pulled back the curtain and revealed that "the jig is up". Stocks and bonds appear to have entered a bear market, and the economy is stagnating. What is an investor to do in this new paradigm?
Although our CIO’s commentary was planned to be published last week, in light of current world events, we elected to hold it back and to address more pressing matters first. We reiterate that our thoughts and prayers are with the Ukrainian people during this troubling time. Like all of you, we continue to monitor events and hope for peace.
In this letter, we have the audacity to give a non-standard view of “Buffett” stocks. Fortuitously, Mr. Buffett issued his annual letter this weekend, lending credence to our belief that he may share the view that now is more of a time for investing in real assets than in the stocks of over-earning consumer brands. In his summary, Mr. Buffett writes about how Berkshire Hathaway was a struggling ‘value’ stock in 1965, having just cumulatively lost money over a nine-year period. Its stock had more than halved. This quintessential deep value stock was the only holding that Warren kept when he unwound his investment partnership in the late 1960s.
Buffett made a point to emphasize (headed ‘Surprise, surprise”) Berkshire’s “Four Giants”: a railroad (BNSF), an utility franchise (BHE), insurance businesses, and – yes – Apple. Three of the four are ‘value’ businesses, two of which are clearly endowed with significant Real Asset holdings. Interestingly, he starts his summary with the fact that Berkshire is the single largest owner/operator of infrastructure in the U.S. It is on their books for $158 BILLION. It was fun to see him end his summary with a reference to “Cousin Jimmy Buffett” who apparently will be selling “party” boats at the Berkshire annual meeting in late April. Apparently, a Berkshire subsidiary is building the boats that Jimmy designed, and Warren is buying one from him. We’ve read that they are long-time friends. Apparently 23andme recently disproved years of conjecture that the two are related.
We hope you enjoy the read.
In his latest commentary, Kopernik analyst and co-portfolio manager for the International Strategy Mark McKinney uses Thomas Sowell’s classic question “At what cost?” to articulate potential unintended consequences of finding solutions to current economic challenges.
As a follow up to his last commentary, Kopernik Analyst and Co-portfolio manager for the International Strategy Mark McKinney furthers the discussion that “help” from the government will create more economic harm than benefit, specifically as it relates to inflation.
In his latest commentary, Kopernik Analyst and Co-portfolio manager for the International Strategy Mark McKinney describes how the “help” from economic policymakers and government officials has historically and will continue in the future to create more harm than benefit economically and societally.
In his latest commentary, Analyst and Portfolio Manager Mark McKinney discusses the rise of a new group of believers in the omnipotent power of the government and central banks, affectionately nicknamed “Fed Bugs,” who believe that printing more money will solve society’s problems. He argues that these Fed Bugs are missing the point: economic logic always wins in the long run.
In this white paper, Kopernik’s Investment Research team analyzes the potential risks and upsides of investing in the mining space and describes how Kopernik values mining companies.
In this update of our 2017 white paper, analyst Steve Rosenthal discusses Kopernik’s perspective on uranium, its unique properties, and the global opportunities Kopernik is currently seeing in the industry.
Kopernik CIO Dave Iben recently spoke with Value Investor Insight for a feature piece on where he's finding value and why it's one of the best times ever to be an active investor. Read the full interview here to learn more about how he's identifying opportunities in high-quality companies in emerging markets as well as situations where cash flows are latent and reside in real assets.
September 10, 2020 - Director of Research/Analyst Alissa Corcoran interviews analysts Steve Rosenthal and Taylor McKenna about how Kopernik values mining companies. Although these companies may come with a lot of baggage, we believe the upside potential more than offsets the risk. We discussed how we assess the risk, the opportunities we are seeing today, and took time to answer live questions.
Please click here to watch the replay.
Kopernik CIO, David Iben, joins Stephanie Pomboy & Grant Williams to discuss the art of value investing, the challenges it faces in today's market environment and why it's a bad idea to write any obituaries for the strategy just yet. Tune in to this podcast to listen as Dave discusses the cycles he's witnessed over his career as he gets ready to enter his fifth decade in the business, the lessons he's learned and offers some thoughts on where value can be found off the beaten path as equity markets scream towards all-time highs.
Kopernik CIO, David Iben, recently discussed with Financial Advisor where Kopernik is finding attractive opportunities within the emerging markets.
Kopernik CIO, David Iben, was recently interviewed by Robert Hunter from Value Invest.
Kopernik CIO, David Iben, was recently interviewed by Robert Hunter from Value Invest.
