| ANNUALIZED SINCE INCEPTION | QUARTERLY | YTD |
|---|---|---|
| 19.9% | -3.9% | 33.5% |
| 2025 |
|---|
| 31.6% |
City Different Investments delivered exceptional 2025 performance with their Global Equity strategy returning 31.6% versus 22.3% for the MSCI ACWI, marking three consecutive years of strong outperformance. The firm's systematic framework emphasizing business quality, valuation, and catalysts drove success through bottom-up stock selection in a challenging year for active managers. Top performer Carvana demonstrated the power of their approach, with the used car e-commerce platform benefiting from competitive advantages and a long growth runway. Talen Energy contributed for the third consecutive year as the nuclear power producer expanded data center partnerships and made strategic acquisitions. The managers made tactical adjustments including trimming winners, exiting Ryanair, and initiating IHS Towers as an emerging markets recovery play. Despite facing headwinds from tariff volatility and tech/AI crowding, the focused portfolios navigated market dynamics effectively. Looking forward, the team remains optimistic about long-term prospects while recommending investors moderate expectations after the unusually strong three-year run. Their 20+ year track record of bottom-up analysis continues to drive confidence in the systematic investment approach.
City Different Investments employs a systematic bottom-up investment framework emphasizing business quality, valuation, and hypothesis/catalysts to identify attractive long-term global equity opportunities in focused portfolios of 10-30 holdings.
The manager is very optimistic about the long term despite recommending investors reset expectations to more moderate levels after unusually strong performance. The success of their systematic framework over 20+ years stems from bottom-up analysis rather than market forecasts, and they remain confident in their approach.
| Date | Letter | Tickers | Keywords | Pitches | Quick Takes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 22 2026 | 2025 Q4 | CROX, CVNA, IHS, MELI, RYAAY, TLN | Bottom-up, E-Commerce, energy, global, nuclear, technology, value |
CVNA TLN IHS |
The fund holds Carvana, a vertically integrated e-commerce platform for used cars that eliminates traditional dealerships. MercadoLibre remains a core holding despite recent weakness, with the manager enthusiastic about its e-commerce and fintech strengths. E-commerce remains an important industry theme for the portfolio. Talen Energy, a major contributor for three consecutive years, owns nuclear facilities and expanded its relationship with Amazon Web Services to provide carbon-free energy for data centers. The global energy transition remains an important industry theme, with the fund investigating energy-related companies that have struggled recently. Talen Energy expanded its relationship with Amazon Web Services to provide carbon-free energy for data centers, highlighting the growing electricity demand from this sector. The fund sees potential benefits from rising electricity demand driven by data center growth. |
| Sep 30 2025 | 2025 Q3 | - | - | - | |
| Jun 30 2025 | 2025 Q2 | - | - | - | |
| Mar 31 2025 | 2025 Q1 | - | - | - | |
| Dec 31 2024 | 2024 Q4 | - | - | - | |
| Sep 30 2024 | 2024 Q3 | - | - | - | |
| Jun 30 2024 | 2024 Q2 | - | - | - | |
| Mar 31 2024 | 2024 Q1 | - | - | - | |
| Dec 31 2023 | 2023 Q4 | - | - | - | |
| Sep 30 2023 | 2023 Q3 | - | - | - | |
| Jun 30 2023 | 2023 Q2 | - | - | - | |
| Mar 31 2023 | 2023 Q1 | - | - | - | |
| Dec 31 2022 | 2022 Q4 | - | - | - | |
| Sep 30 2022 | 2022 Q3 | - | - | - | |
| Jun 30 2022 | 2022 Q2 | - | - | - | |
| Mar 31 2022 | 2022 Q1 | - | - | - |
| QUARTER | THEMES | TAGS |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 Q4 |
Data CentersSupply constraints curtailing infrastructure buildout rate, but compute capacity is being used immediately upon coming online. This differs from dot-com bubble when dark fiber was installed ahead of need. Labor, power and land shortages creating bottlenecks. |
Supply Constraints Utilization Bottlenecks Infrastructure |
E-commerceSeveral investments in e-commerce leaders across Asia and Latin America, including MercadoLibre, Sea Limited and Alibaba, faced a more competitive operating environment during the period. As long-term investors, SGA observes that competitive intensity in these markets tends to ebb and flow over shorter time horizons, with market leaders typically emerging from such periods with strengthened strategic positions given inherent network effects. |
Marketplaces Competition Network Effects Asia Latin America | |
Energy TransitionThe portfolio maintains significant exposure to electrification themes through companies like Bloom Energy, which provides clean, reliable power solutions for AI data centers. The energy transition represents a structural opportunity as companies race to build power infrastructure to support growing electricity demands from AI workloads. |
Electrification Clean Energy Power Generation Fuel Cells Grid Infrastructure |
| Date | Pitch Type | Author | Ticker | Company | Industry | Sub Industry | Bull / Bear | Exchange | Keywords | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 22, 2026 | Fund Letters | Vinson Walden | CVNA | Carvana Co. | Consumer Discretionary | Internet & Direct Marketing Retail | Bull | New York Stock Exchange | ecommerce, Financing, Logistics, margin, marketshare, scale | Login |
| Feb 22, 2026 | Fund Letters | Vinson Walden | TLN | Talen Energy Corporation | Utilities | Independent Power Producers & Energy Traders | Bull | NASDAQ | capital allocation, Contracting, data centers, electricity demand, Nuclear, Regulation | Login |
| Feb 22, 2026 | Fund Letters | Vinson Walden | IHS | IHS Holding Limited | Communication Services | Wireless Telecommunication Services | Bull | New York Stock Exchange | deleveraging, Emerging markets, infrastructure, recovery, Tenancy, Towers | Login |
| TICKER | COMMENTARY |
|---|---|
| CROX | There were also a handful of holdings that detracted from our overall 2025 result, including footwear company Crocs Inc. We were attracted to Crocs partly because of its highly profitable flagship brand, but it turned out to be a value trap, and we moved on. |
| CVNA | Our portfolio looks very skewed to Carvana, but that is a feature of the strategy – to let winners run. We did not buy Carvana at this size; it is this size because it is up 100x from its 2022 lows. Carvana uses its technology to manage pricing, logistics, inspections, reconditioning workflow, merchandising, and more. These are all cogs in the industrial machine it has assembled to buy and sell cars to end customers. Significant proprietary technology has been developed to enable Carvana's retail and wholesale operations. Because Carvana is digitally native and has significant size and scale, it has been able to invest in significantly more technology than other auto dealers. |
| MELI | E-commerce Volatility: turbulence in our e-commerce portfolio companies, Sea Ltd (Southeast Asia) and MercadoLibre (Latin America), amidst aggressive price wars. |
| RYAAY | This is the largest airline in Europe. I followed the company for about 18 years. I owned its shares professionally for much of that time. We bought Ryanair's American Depository Shares when Greenfield started managing investments in September 2021 at around US$45 (adjusted for a subsequent stock split). At the time, the airline was still losing money from the COVID-19 pandemic, but it previously had consistently strong profitability. The price at the time represented only 16 times what the airline had earned back in 2018. I felt their earnings would eventually be materially higher. And, unlike many airlines, Ryanair still had an excellent balance sheet. The American Depository Shares now trade at around US$73 representing roughly 14 times earnings. I feel the airline will continue using its low-cost competitive advantage to grow by stealing market share from weaker airlines. |
| TLN | Our power basket performed well with Talen Energy doubling. |
| Ticker | Put/Call | Amount Bought | Shares Bought | % Change | Weight % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Recent Buys Data | |||||
| Ticker | Put/Call | Amount Sold | Shares Sold | % Change | Weight % | Status |
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| Industry | Prev Quarter % | Current Quarter % | Change |
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