The Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing (Europe) in collaboration with the Greek Centre for Value Investing was held its 4th European Value Investing Conference, on October 17, 2024 at Eurobank Hub, in Nea Ionia, Athens, Greece.

The mission of the Conference was to promote the tenets of value investing as pioneered by Benjamin Graham, to expose Conference participants to the various value investing methods used by practitioners, and to encourage and support academic research and study in the area of value investing.

The Conference provided a forum to explain, discuss and debate the principles, practices and various applications of value investing from a global context with emphasis on the European markets.

Conference Organizer and Chair

George Athanassakos, Founder & Managing Director, Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing, Ivey Business School and Greek Centre for Value Investing
Topic: “Defining Risk: It all depends on your Investing Horizon”

In his opening remarks, among other things, Dr. Athanassakos expressed his frustration with academics who have paid little attention to value investing and stock picking over the years and thus lack a basic understanding of what value investing is. As Dr. Athanassakos explained, an area of significant misunderstanding is the way risk is defined. Finance academics define risk as volatility, whereas value investors define risk as the probability that adverse outcomes in the future will permanently impair the cash flow potential of a business leading to permanent (long run) impairment of capital. What is the right definition of risk? He referred to recent research by Javier Estrada of IESE Business School in Spain who concludes that “Investors should learn about the detrimental impact of reacting to short term volatility and focus on the end game instead”.  Estrada showed that in the US, the mean terminal wealth of investing in stocks over a 10, 20 and 30 year period is 59%, 146% and 299% higher than investing in bonds. In Canada, the corresponding figures are, 41%, 88% and 131%.  For the world markets, they are 49%, 116% and 231%, respectively.  It is true that the volatility of terminal wealth across all holding periods is found to be higher for stocks than bonds in every market examined and thus stocks are riskier when risk is measured by volatility. But, interestingly enough, the higher volatility of terminal wealth from stocks is mostly on the upside. Stocks have both higher upside and more limited downside than bonds. Why then are stocks viewed as riskier than bonds?  It may be the wide acceptance of volatility as a measure of risk at universities and academia’s influence on the CFA program. Dr. Athanassakos covers these concepts in great depth in his recently published book “Value Investing: From Theory to Practice”.

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Dr. Athanassakos proudly welcomed the panel of professional value investors Richard Oldfield, Alex Rauchenstein, Robert Robotti, Jan Hummel, Paul Lountzis, David MacNicol and Dede Eyesan, who spoke about value investing around the world and told the conference how they put theory into practice in their own portfolios in a global setting. He was also delighted to have as keynote speaker at the Conference Jamie Lowry (Managing Director at Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel, a Subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings, and Head of European Investments) who gave conference attendees a view of value and value creation which is different from our everyday norm.

In his closing remarks, Dr. Athanassakos thanked all speakers, generous sponsors and contributors and expressed his gratitude to all those who attended from all over the world.

Keynote Speaker

Introduction by: Fokion Karavias, Chief Executive Officer, Eurobank SA

Presenter: Jamie Lowry, Managing Director, Head of European Investments, Hamblin Watsa Investment Council (A Subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings)
Topic: “The Management of Value”

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Value Investor Session

Presenter: Richard Oldfield, Founder, Oldfield Partners LLP, London, UK
Topic: “Simple But Not Easy, Revisited”

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Presenter: Alex Rauchenstein, Partner and Chief Executive Officer, SIA Funds AG, Lachen, Switzerland
Topic: “Strategic Value Investing”

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Presenter: Robert Robotti, Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Robotti & Company Advisors LLC., New York, NY, USA
Topic: “Restoration of the Fallen – Banquet set for the Decade of Stock Pickers Outperformance (Especially the few left)”

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Presenter: Jan Hummel, Chief Investment Officer and Founder, Paradigm Capital AG, Grünwald, Germany
Topic: “Has Value Investing in Europe Changed since the Great Financial Crisis?”

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Presenter: Paul Lountzis, President, Lountzis Asset Management, LLC, Wyomissing, PA, USA
Topic: “Differential Insights”

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Presenter: David MacNicol, Founder, President & Portfolio Manager, MacNicol & Associates Asset Management Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Topic: “Marrying Value Investing with Momentum Investing using Public and Private Securities”

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Presenter: Dede Eyesan, Founder, Jenga Investment Partners, London, UK
Topic:“Current Perspectives on Value Investing in Emerging Markets. From Poland to Vietnam.”

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Thank you to our Sponsors

We would like to thank our sponsors Eurobank S.A., Eurolife FFH, Centre for the Advancement of Value Investing Education, Robotti Value Investors, Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. and National and Kapodistrian University of Athens for their generous support.