WashU's top 100 look-through positions constitute over one-third of the portfolio
Scott Wilson · Scott Wilson – Concentrated Investing at Washington University-St. Louis (Capital Allocators, EP. 159) · Oct 5, 2020 · at 44:49
Scott Wilson, Chief Investment Officer of Washington University in St. Louis, explains the level of portfolio concentration across the university's multi-billion-dollar endowment.
0:00 / 0:10exact quote · 10.8s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“If you looked at our top hundred positions, that's going to be probably a third of the portfolio and maybe even slightly more than that currently, just because we've had such a big run in some of those names”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Scott Wilson
Wilson redeemed nearly half of WashU's endowment in his first weeks
“We put in redemptions for almost half the portfolio in the first several weeks.”
WashU turned over 80% of its legacy endowment portfolio in three years
“At this point, I think we've probably turned over. 70, 80% of the original pool, even more than 80%, actually. So the vast majority of it's been turned over and those we've kept, we've added capital to and concentrated exposures.”
Multi-manager hedge funds act as expensive index funds guaranteeing underperformance
“Because essentially you're an index fund on both sides of the market with an expensive active management fee structure on top of it. And the fee structure is problematic in that it guarantees you always do worse than the average, right? So you're essentially i…”
WashU drove strong returns buying Russian tech at 5x earnings multiples
“Russia, we've made quite a bit of money in some of the more tech based companies that would trade it. 20 times revenue in the U S that are trading at five times earnings in Russia, growing in return on equity of 60% plus growing at 30, 40% right through COVID …”
Traditional allocators require years of mentoring to adapt to direct underwriting
“I don't think someone who comes from a traditional allocator background and grew up in that world, it takes, I think, several years of learning and mentoring before they're comfortable with this kind of investment style.”
WashU avoids micro VC funds due to difficulty underwriting differentiated thinkers
“We haven't had really much success in kind of the micro VC world. Like there's so many of these small micro VC funds. And again, these are a lot of smart, talented people who come from good places, but it's just really tough for us to underwrite and find uniqu…”