Podcast #23: Harris Kupperman - Opportunities

L2 Capital

In today's episode, Marcelo López talked to Harris Kupperman, mostly known as Kuppy. Harris is the founder of Pretorium Capital and is famous for being a fund manager with unconventional investment ideas, some of which he writes in the blog “Adventures in Capitalism” (https://adventuresincapitalism.com/). He is always looking for asymmetrical investment opportunities in sectors that are disregarded or even scorned by most investors, which generally end up being the ones with huge potential for appreciation.

Initially, Kuppy discusses his views of the current market and system situation, the possibility of a crash, the factors involved, inflation, central bank performance and comments on what he calls Ponzi stocks.

In this context, Kupperman discusses private equity, the preference of institutional investors for businesses involving privately held companies to the detriment of publicly traded ones, players' perception of volatility and the risks involved in this type of market.

Kuppy talks about being short on the market under current circumstances and how he prefers to be long on some assets as a way to position himself for a market turnaround. From this perspective, he presents the investment thesis of the second largest position in his portfolio, with considerations on micro and macroeconomic aspects, which show his thinking when seeking investments.

Harris also compares the latest financial crisis of 2007-08 against the current scenario, with considerations and analysis of interest rates, defaults, the real estate and mortgage markets.

Kuppy talks about commodities and explains why he believes they are the biggest investment opportunity at the moment. On this occasion, he highlights uranium and its peculiarities.

Kupperman, who participated in the last uranium bull market, describes the factors that influenced the last cycle of appreciation of the commodity, and draws a comparison with the current situation in the sector.

Harris explains the investment thesis involving shipping companies, which today is the largest position in his portfolio. He highlights the cyclical behavior of the industry and the factors that may be critical to a huge appreciation of companies in this industry.