| ANNUALIZED SINCE INCEPTION | QUARTERLY | YTD |
|---|---|---|
| - | 4.5% | 20.5% |
| 2025 |
|---|
| 20.5% |
Tactile Fund returned 4.5% in Q4 2025 and 20.5% for the year, outperforming the MSCI World Small+MicroCap index. The fund's strategy targets companies with extraordinary physical assets as protection against two major risks: currency devaluation/structural inflation and technological disruption. The US Dollar weakened as investors questioned its reserve currency status, while international markets outperformed US markets for the first time in years. Technology stocks face growing concerns as AI threatens to commoditize software franchises, and mega-cap tech companies are spending massive amounts on data centers, potentially making them look more like old-line industrials. The portfolio's winners included Swiss Alpine Railways, Australian and New Zealand agriculture companies, and American shipbuilders. Laggards included North American food and agriculture companies and European luxury holdings. The manager believes the market has not yet recognized the value of the portfolio's physical assets, which include railways, irreplaceable real estate, mineral resources, essential foods, and critical infrastructure that provide inflation protection and cannot be replaced by AI.
Tactile Fund invests in companies with extraordinary physical assets that provide pricing power against currency devaluation and inflation while being immune to AI disruption.
The manager expects quality physical assets to be increasingly appreciated as investors grow more skeptical of intangibles like software. While there may be periods when the pendulum swings back toward faith in the US Dollar and intellectual property, the holdings in Tactile Fund's portfolio have endured for decades and will continue to do so.
| Date | Letter | Tickers | Keywords | Pitches | Quick Takes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 19 2026 | 2025 Q4 | AER, CWK.L, FCG.NZ, GOOGL, GRUMAB.MX, HII, JUNGN.SW, LAMR, MATX, MCEM, META | Agriculture, AI, global, inflation, infrastructure, Luxury, Physical Assets, value |
FSF NZ HII GMEXICOB MM BWEL GRUMAB MM |
Holdings like Ricegrowers Ltd and Fonterra Shareholders Fund powered higher as rice and milk prices remained healthy and demand grew. Fonterra struck an agreement to sell its consumer-facing businesses to dairy powerhouse Lactalis. As the world's middle class grows, consumers will demand both more and better-quality foods and ingredients. Swiss Alpine Railways investors took notice of strong earnings from Jungfraubahn AG and BVZ Holding AG, each of which owns a collection of impossible to duplicate transportation and tourism infrastructure in the Alps. American shipbuilders benefit from higher spending on vessels and naval systems for national security reasons. There is a growing realization that artificial intelligence can reproduce the functions of a meaningful portion of the software offered by today's dominant software companies at a small fraction of the cost. Software franchises may eventually turn out to be just another commodity. AI capabilities will only improve. Tactile Fund owns shares in multiple European companies with extensive real estate holdings in exclusive locations. These are owned for their trophy assets that will grow in value with time, though this could mean waiting for their share prices to move. |
| Sep 30 2025 | 2025 Q3 | AND CN, CNRD, FUM IM | Hard assets, inflation, infrastructure, Scarcity, Tourism | - | Hard assets: The fund continues its focus on land, minerals, timber, and durable physical assets that maintain scarcity value during inflationary periods. Infrastructure: Investments in shipbuilding, quarries, and Alpine rail networks provide irreplaceable long-life assets with strong pricing power and limited competition. Tourism: Alpine rail operators (Jungfraubahn, BVZ, Mont-Blanc) provide monopolistic access to world-class destinations; revenues benefit from inelastic global tourism demand and constrained supply of new infrastructure. |
| May 7 2025 | 2025 Q1 | - | CashFlow, Hard assets, inflation, Quality, real assets |
CNRD ADN CN FUM IM |
Real assets: The fund focuses on companies with extraordinary physical assetscement plants, ports, hotels, agricultural land, and specialty infrastructurebelieving these durable assets will compound economic value over decades. Inflation: Tactile positions itself as a partial hedge against inflation and currency debasement, investing in asset-heavy businesses with strong cash-flow durability, scarcity value, and pricing power. Quality: The letter emphasizes extremely low turnover, long-duration ownership, and preference for businesses with structural advantages such as geographic moats, oligopolistic industry structures, and irreplaceable hard assets. |
| QUARTER | THEMES | TAGS |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 Q4 |
AgricultureHoldings like Ricegrowers Ltd and Fonterra Shareholders Fund powered higher as rice and milk prices remained healthy and demand grew. Fonterra struck an agreement to sell its consumer-facing businesses to dairy powerhouse Lactalis. As the world's middle class grows, consumers will demand both more and better-quality foods and ingredients. |
Dairy Food Grains Agriculture |
AIAI has been integrated into RGA's research process through tools like NotebookLM, Gems in Gemini, and Claude Code. The firm views AI as a force multiplier for human judgment rather than a replacement, emphasizing the Kasparov Law principle. They believe the market narrative around AI displacement is swinging to unhelpful extremes, creating investment opportunities. |
Machine Learning Automation Software Productivity Innovation | |
InfrastructureDigital 9 Infrastructure holds telecom infrastructure assets including Arqiva stake. Despite poor 2025 performance, potential capital returns and asset sales could unlock value. Infrastructure assets provide defensive characteristics. |
Telecom Infrastructure Digital Infrastructure | |
LuxuryNew investment in Swatch represents exposure to luxury watch brands including Omega, Longines, Tissot, and others. The investment thesis is based on tangible assets including Swiss real estate and the potential for operating leverage when luxury demand recovers from current structural pressures. |
Watches Swiss Brands Premium Recovery | |
| 2025 Q3 |
MediaWarner Bros Discovery was the top contributor as multiple parties submitted acquisition offers, with Netflix acquiring the Streaming and Studios business while Global Networks spins to shareholders. Paramount Skydance made a $30 per share offer for the entire company, creating a bidding war that unlocked shareholder value. |
Streaming M&A Content Entertainment Bidding |
| 2025 Q1 |
InflationInflation has continued to be a persistent feature in Japan and has prompted changes in both corporate and consumer behavior. Importantly, inflation has fed through to corporate earnings and equity performance. Companies that have successfully passed on higher costs to consumers have benefited from improved operating margins. |
Inflation Corporate Earnings Operating Margins Consumer Behavior Cost Pass-through |
| Date | Pitch Type | Author | Ticker | Company | Industry | Sub Industry | Bull / Bear | Exchange | Keywords | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 30, 2025 | Fund Letters | Dave Waters | ADN CN | Acadian Timber Corp. | Industrials | Timber & Forestry | Bear | TSX | Commodities, Cyclicals, Forestry, Housing, Timber | Login |
| Sep 30, 2025 | Fund Letters | Dave Waters | FUM IM | Franchi Umberto Marmi S.p.A. | Health Care | Luxury Stone & Marble | Bull | Borsa Istanbul | Luxury, Marble, materials, Scarcity, tariffs | Login |
| Feb 19, 2026 | Fund Letters | Dave Waters | FSF NZ | Fonterra Shareholders Fund | Consumer Staples | Packaged Foods & Meats | Bull | New York Stock Exchange | agriculture, Dairy, Exports, Food Demand, Pricing power | Login |
| Feb 19, 2026 | Fund Letters | Dave Waters | HII | Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. | Industrials | Aerospace & Defense | Bull | New York Stock Exchange | backlog, Defense, infrastructure, national security, Shipbuilding | Login |
| Feb 19, 2026 | Fund Letters | Dave Waters | GMEXICOB MM | Mexican Gruma, S.A.B. de C.V. | Consumer Staples | Packaged Foods & Meats | Bull | New York Stock Exchange | Emerging markets, market share, Staples, Tortillas, valuation | Login |
| Feb 19, 2026 | Fund Letters | Dave Waters | BWEL | J.G. Boswell Company | Consumer Staples | Agricultural Products & Services | Bull | Dubai Financial Market | assets, Cyclicality, Farmland, NAV, Water | Login |
| Feb 19, 2026 | Fund Letters | Dave Waters | GRUMAB MM | Gruma, S.A.B. de C.V. | Consumer Staples | Packaged Foods & Meats | Bull | New York Stock Exchange | Corn, market share, Staples, Tortillas, valuation | Login |
| Sep 30, 2025 | Fund Letters | Dave Waters | CNRD | Conrad Industries, Inc. | Industrials | Shipbuilding | Bull | - | backlog, Cyclicals, energy, Industrials, Shipbuilding | Login |
| TICKER | COMMENTARY |
|---|---|
| AER | Airline leasing business AerCap contributed 1.4% to the Fund's returns |
| FCG.NZ | Holdings like Ricegrowers Ltd and Fonterra Shareholders Fund powered higher as rice and milk prices remained healthy and demand grew. Fonterra struck an agreement to sell its consumer-facing businesses to dairy powerhouse Lactalis. |
| GOOGL | In the third quarter, Google, Kairos Power, and the Tennessee Valley Authority announced a major collaboration centered on a novel power purchase agreement. Google followed this announcement with another significant step forward. On October 27, Google and NextEra Energy announced plans to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center. |
| GRUMAB.MX | Shares of Gruma SAB de CV declined despite strong operating results. Gruma shares trade at only 13x earnings, a true bargain for a company with a such a dominant market share in corn processing and tortilla production. |
| HII | Huntington Ingalls Industries, the largest shipbuilder for the US Navy, outperformed during the quarter after reporting strong Q3 results and raising full-year guidance. Shares also benefited after the award of a new frigate contract and discussion of a potential Trump-class battleship, both of which were viewed as meaningful opportunities. Performance was further supported by improving execution as recent labor challenges eased. |
| JUNGN.SW | Investors took notice of strong earnings from Jungfraubahn AG and BVZ Holding AG, each of which owns a collection of impossible to duplicate transportation and tourism infrastructure in the Alps. |
| LAMR | One of the top contributors to our Strategy's performance in the quarter, for instance, was Lamar Advertising (LAMR), the nation's leading out-of-home advertising company. LAMR, which operates as a real estate investment trust, had been underperforming for much of the year. It recently provided a solid Q3 report and very favorable outlook causing the stock to rally. LAMR is one of these companies, as the company has been active on its buyback program and increased its dividend this year. LAMR's pacings have been strong, which should lead to positive earnings growth in 2026. Even better, 2026 brings with it the mid-term election cycle, which should boost political advertising spending on Lamar's properties. Still, the stock trades at a reasonable valuation of around 15 times 2026 Enterprise Value/EBITDA. |
| META | On January 9, Meta Platforms unveiled a new agreement with Vistra—the largest generator of competitive electricity in the United States—as well as with TerraPower and Oklo. The announcement builds on Meta's agreement last year with Constellation Energy and positions the company to become one of the largest corporate purchasers of nuclear-generated electricity in the United States. |
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