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Tag: Gabriel Grego

Season 2, Episode 18: The Methods of a Short Activist Hedge Fund

Published June 9, 2020

With Gabriel Grego, Quintessential Capital Management

Gabriel Grego of Quintessential Capital joins the podcast to discuss his short activist strategy.

Grego finds three or four “high conviction” ideas to trade a year. His process is exhaustive but straightforward, though few managers have the stomach to replicate it. The reasons for this are discussed in the second half of the podcast.

Content:

  • How it all starts. Finding the right target is crucial. Grego’s focus on “extreme corporate catastrophic situations” (1:39);
  • Some of the typical “red flags” to look for (3:43);
  • Trendy industries are often clusters for fraudulent behavior. COVID-19 is the most recent example (6:01);
  • Narrowing the target list and creating a thesis (10:37);
  • The final step: “boots on the ground” research (16:46);
  • Background on the guest (21:57);
  • Activist shorting is “scary stuff” (25:38);
  • More terrifying than being a paratrooper? (27:29);
  • Background on QCM’s fund and current exposure (30:28);
  • How QCM has dealt with the events of 2020, including a rare (and successful) attempt to time markets in March (34:05);
  • Chinese companies traded in the U.S. look “very very interesting,” though Chinese fraud is “a different beast” (42:14).

More Information on the Guest:

Not intended as investment advice.

MoreSeason 2, Episode 18: The Methods of a Short Activist Hedge Fund
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Shares of Akazoo, Silvercorp Sell Off On Reports From Inaugural Contrarian Investor Virtual Podcast

Published April 21, 2020

The Contrarian Investor Podcast, in partnership with ValueWalk, hosted the inaugural virtual conference before market open on Monday, April 20. A recording of the event is available on our new YouTube channel (and viewable at the bottom of this page).

Shares of Akazoo sold off sharply after the presentation from Gabriele Grego of Quintessential Capital Management that kicked off the event. “We believe Akazoo is a scheme orchestrated by management to profit while egregiously deceiving investors,” Grego said during the presentation. “We see signs of very suspicious accounting manipulation,” including cash inconsistencies and “a total lack of income taxes.”

Update: On May 21, an Akazoo special committee of independent directors announced that management and associates “participated in sophisticated multi-year fraud.”

Silvercorp Metals also sold off in the pre-market after the presentation by Nathan Anderson of Hindenburg Research.

Maj Soueidan of GeoInvesting LLC, a previous guest on this podcast, said he was bullish on shares of Intouch Insight. The customer experience company’s stock has sold off after coronavirus, which Soueidan says is an opportunity to build a position. He has a target of about $3 for the stock, which was trading around 27 cents a share at the time of his presentation.

Matt Zabloski, another guest on the podcast, gave the final presentation of the event, saying he was long shares of Vale, a Brazilian iron ore producer.

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