TORONTO, May 11, 2018 – Aventine Asset Management is pleased to announce that it was selected earlier this week as one of five finalists in a global institutional investment challenge jointly hosted by legendary U.S. value investors Chuck Royce of Royce Funds (www.roycefunds.com) and Michael van Biema of van Biema Value Partners (www.vbvaluepartners.com).
The competition was facilitated by SumZero (www.sumzero.com), a worldwide community of over 16,000 asset management professionals working at hedge funds, private equity firms and other buy-side investment managers. The goal of this initiative was to identify talented value-oriented managers investing in global ex-U.S. equities for potential inclusion in a new van Biema family office manager platform.
To quote the van Biema team:
“We chose five finalists out of what we felt was a high-quality field and are grateful to all who participated. Ultimately, we based our selection of the finalists on the quality of both the stock idea and the write-up, itself. All five provided well-reasoned, well-presented investment theses, indicating thorough research and a keen focus on key issues and risks. Attention to the quality of the balance sheet and any other factors providing downside protection, also weighed significantly on our choices.”
Aventine’s submission to the competition was its recent deep dive on Evertz Technologies, co-authored by James Telfser and Andrew Shortreid. Said Andrew Shortreid, President and CIO of Aventine:
“It’s a great honour to be the only Canadian asset manager advancing to the final round of this competition. Chuck Royce and Michael van Biema are pillars of the all-cap value investing approach with, quite honestly, unparalleled knowledge and experience. Royce has a 45-year value investing track record and van Biema taught value investing for 12 years in the Benjamin Graham program at Columbia Business School prior to starting his investment firm. You don’t get a much better pedigree than that and we are thrilled to engage with these two individuals on investment process, business development and operational due diligence.”
Additional Information
- Press Release, May 10, 2018 – “Van Biema Ex-U.S. Contest Finalists Announced” (SumZero)
- Interview, March 20, 2018 – “Small Cap Legend’s Advice for Investors” (Forbes.com)
About Royce Funds
Founded in 1972, Royce Funds is a pioneer in small-cap investing having cultivated their particular approach for over 4 decades. Their team of 30+ investment professionals led by Chuck Royce manages $17.4 billion across a range of funds and institutional investment accounts. Royce funds is an affiliate of Legg Mason, a diversified investment firm founded in 1899 with over $760 billion under management.
About Van Biema Value Partners
Founded in 2004, van Biema Value Partners specializes in creating portfolios of value-oriented hedge funds for sophisticated clients and investors around the globe. The van Biema approach is rooted in two fundamental tenets: that a value approach outperforms other investment styles and the broader markets over the long term, and that smaller managers tend to outperform larger managers. Michael van Biema taught value investing at Columbia Business school from 1992 to 2004 and is the co-author of “Concentrated Investing: Strategies of the World’s Greatest Concentrated Value Investors”.
For further information, please contact:
Shannon Veitch, Investor Relations
(416) 847-1767 x510
sv@aventine.ca
www.aventine.ca
