StarZero All shows Try the podcast clipper →

Symphony Financial Partners

14 statements across 1 episodes · 7 bullish · 0 bearish · 2 people on the record · first statement Feb 8, 2021 by David Baran · said 12 times in 2 episodes since 2020 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Ted Seides (7), David Baran (4), Kazuhiko Shibata (1)

tap a year for its mentions
008115120202021episodesmentions
01120202021episodes it came up in
007.50.515120202021episodesmentions per episode
2021 11 mentions in 1 episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Symphony Financial Partners, oldest first

Feb 8, 2021
Disclosure
Baran: Symphony does not want to turn around or fix operations
“Good businesses. We don't want to fix businesses. We don't know how to make anything. We're comfortable in that position.”
David Baran Feb 8, 2021 ▶ 17:31 David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Feb 8, 2021
Disclosure
Symphony passes on investment targets that offer only one exit option
“If there is only one exit option, we'll move next one. We want to have couple of exit options.”
Kazuhiko Shibata Feb 8, 2021 ▶ 44:26 David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Feb 8, 2021
Insight
Baran: Planning the exit is far more important than finding cheap stocks
“Because thinking about getting out is way more important than thinking about getting in. I can give you a 150 cheap names that you can buy, but once you've bought them, it's like, okay, what causes the share price to go up and you get out?”
David Baran Feb 8, 2021 ▶ 45:06 David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Feb 8, 2021 positive
Assertion Contradicted
Baran: Symphony holds Japanese companies with 60% EBITDA margins
“We own companies that have like 60% heavy down margins. I mean, I'd be hard pressed to find that in the U.S. Market. And they're making money. They're profitable.”
David Baran Feb 8, 2021 ▶ 48:48 David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Feb 8, 2021 bullish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Baran: Nagao's inventory resale value was 8x its market cap
“The interesting thing about this company was when we found it, they were trading at a discount to the value of the units that they owned. If the company at the time said we're going to sell all the units, And take the cash and dividend it out. It would have be…”
David Baran Feb 8, 2021 ▶ 50:09 David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Feb 8, 2021 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Baran: Symphony convinced portfolio company Zico to issue a 48 bps bond
“We just were able to steer management of Zico, which is one of our big portfolio companies. They're building a new factory, and they were like, they got tons of cash on the balance sheet, and they were getting ready to go and use it. And we're like, no, no, no…”
David Baran Feb 8, 2021 ▶ 56:40 David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Feb 8, 2021
Assertion Partly supported
Shibata: Symphony was first hedge fund to sponsor Japanese management buyout
“Actually, we are the first, the hedge fund who sponsored management buyout. Central Uni is the name of the company.”
Kazuhiko Shibata Feb 8, 2021 ▶ 34:12 David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Feb 8, 2021
Disclosure
Shibata: Symphony provides free management advisory work prior to investing
“Once we identify the manager, before investing, we'll start working, giving free advice, and I'm trying to be on their side, not the other side of a table and banging a table. That's not our way. We are always trying to be their advisor for free.”
Kazuhiko Shibata Feb 8, 2021 ▶ 32:26 David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Feb 8, 2021 positive
Insight
Baran: Cooperative activism beats hostile campaigns in Japan over long time horizons
“This is going to take a long, long time before you get a real market for corporate control, and it's going to take a long time to digest all the companies that could be digested even after that's understood. So let's not play the hostile game and have people a…”
David Baran Feb 8, 2021 ▶ 31:31 David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Feb 8, 2021 positive
Insight
Baran: Japanese corporates, not other funds, drive Japan's valuation changes
“The competitive landscape for us is not really other funds. It's Japanese corporations. Because other funds are great, they can go out and do things, but the best buyer and the biggest proponent of change in valuations in corporate Japan is corporate Japan. An…”
David Baran Feb 8, 2021 ▶ 59:32 David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Feb 8, 2021 bullish
Disclosure
Baran: Symphony has held Nagao for roughly a decade, returning 10x
“We've owned this company for probably close to 10 years now, and it's up 10 times.”
David Baran Feb 8, 2021 ▶ 54:11 David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Feb 8, 2021 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Baran: Symphony helped replace Zico's founding family with a new president
“We helped put the new president into the company and move the family out, which let me tell you, that's no small feat.”
David Baran Feb 8, 2021 ▶ 57:50 David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Feb 8, 2021 neutral
Disclosure
Baran: Symphony usually holds 12 to 15 positions
“There's usually 12 to 15 names in the portfolio in various degrees of progress.”
David Baran Feb 8, 2021 ▶ 46:45 David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Feb 8, 2021 neutral
Disclosure
Baran: Symphony operates with zero leverage and no shorting
“We never lever. We're a terrible prime brokerage client. We don't short, and we don't borrow money.”
David Baran Feb 8, 2021 ▶ 47:17 David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 700 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.

Try the podcast clipper Learn more