Investment Pitches

Pitch Summary:
Our Small Cap companies are not likely household names. For instance, we own the two largest brickmakers in the United Kingdom, Ibstock and Forterra. Domestic brickmakers cannot produce enough bricks to meet long term demand. Moreover, there is a housing shortage in the United Kingdom. Consequently, Ibstock and Forterra have strong pricing power. However, higher interest rates and a weak British economy have caused housing starts to fall which has negatively impacted demand for bricks. We believe both companies are under earning and have strong long-term fundamentals. We are happy to own them with a margin of safety in terms of price compared to our estimate of intrinsic worth.

BSD Analysis:
Vulcan Value Partners holds Forterra as the second component of their UK brickmaking duopoly strategy, sharing the same investment rationale as Ibstock. The fund recognizes Forterra's position as one of the two dominant brick manufacturers in a market characterized by chronic undersupply and structural housing shortages. This market dynamic creates significant pricing power for both companies, despite current cyclical pressures from elevated interest rates and economic weakness affecting housing construction. The manager views the current earnings environment as temporarily depressed, believing both companies possess strong long-term fundamentals that will drive superior returns once construction activity recovers. The investment represents a value play on essential building materials with oligopolistic market positioning, purchased at what Vulcan considers a substantial discount to intrinsic value during a cyclical downturn.

Pitch Summary:
Initiated: Vail Resorts (MTN) –MTN owns 41 ski resorts and regional ski hills across North America, Australia & Europe. MTN has aggregated quality assets in a supply-constrained industry. Its scale and diverse portfolio offers a competitive advantage. Its season pass program, Epic Pass, promotes customer loyalty and generates recurring revenue. We believe MTN's growth outlook is favorable and aligns with trends favoring outdoor and experience-based tourism. MTN has a solid balance sheet and trades at an attractive valuation coming out of a disappointing ski season.

BSD Analysis:
The London Company initiated a position in Vail Resorts, attracted to the company's dominant position in the supply-constrained ski resort industry. The fund emphasizes MTN's portfolio of 41 high-quality ski resorts across multiple geographies, which provides both scale advantages and diversification benefits. The Epic Pass subscription model is highlighted as a key competitive moat, driving customer loyalty while generating predictable recurring revenue streams. The investment thesis aligns with broader consumer trends favoring outdoor recreation and experiential tourism, positioning MTN to benefit from these secular tailwinds. The fund views the current valuation as attractive following a disappointing ski season, suggesting they see the recent weakness as a buying opportunity. The company's solid balance sheet provides financial flexibility to weather seasonal volatility and invest in growth initiatives.

Pitch Summary:
Our Small Cap companies are not likely household names. For instance, we own the two largest brickmakers in the United Kingdom, Ibstock and Forterra. Domestic brickmakers cannot produce enough bricks to meet long term demand. Moreover, there is a housing shortage in the United Kingdom. Consequently, Ibstock and Forterra have strong pricing power. However, higher interest rates and a weak British economy have caused housing starts to fall which has negatively impacted demand for bricks. We believe both companies are under earning and have strong long-term fundamentals. We are happy to own them with a margin of safety in terms of price compared to our estimate of intrinsic worth.

BSD Analysis:
Vulcan Value Partners holds Ibstock as part of a duopoly position in UK brickmaking, alongside Forterra, capitalizing on a structural supply-demand imbalance in the British construction market. The investment thesis is built on the inability of domestic producers to meet long-term brick demand, combined with a significant housing shortage in the UK that provides sustained pricing power. While acknowledging near-term headwinds from higher interest rates and economic weakness that have reduced housing starts, the fund views current earnings as depressed relative to the companies' long-term potential. The manager believes both brick manufacturers are trading at attractive valuations with a meaningful margin of safety, positioning them to benefit when construction activity normalizes. This represents a contrarian bet on UK construction recovery while capitalizing on the oligopolistic market structure that should provide sustainable competitive advantages.

Pitch Summary:
Initiated: Casella Waste Systems (CWST) -CWST is the 5th largest waste company in the U.S., and it's the #1 player in the dense Northeast. CWST is vertically integrated and has significant rural market exposure (~70%) versus its peers. The Northeast hasn't approved a new landfill permit in 30 years, so the scarcity value of landfills combined with CWST's vertical integration has given it significant pricing power. We're attracted to CWST's leading position in a stable business with high degree of recurring revenue. It has low leverage and is family owned. Plus, as a smaller player in a consolidating industry, CWST could possibly be acquired by a large player in the future.

BSD Analysis:
The London Company initiated a position in Casella Waste Systems, viewing it as an attractive regional waste management play with significant competitive advantages. The fund highlights CWST's dominant position in the Northeast market, where regulatory barriers have created substantial scarcity value for landfill assets. The company's vertical integration and 70% rural market exposure provide differentiation versus larger peers, while the 30-year moratorium on new landfill permits in the Northeast creates significant pricing power. The investment thesis centers on CWST's stable, recurring revenue business model with low leverage and family ownership providing additional appeal. The fund also sees potential upside from industry consolidation, where CWST could become an acquisition target for larger waste management companies seeking to expand their Northeast footprint.

Pitch Summary:
One example that we recently purchased is Diageo. Diageo is the largest spirits maker in the world. The company focuses on the premium sector of the market, which is growing faster than the market as a whole. Several of its largest brands are over one hundred years old. Its competitive advantages include its broad portfolio of brands, global reach, distribution in a highly regulated industry, and advertising scale. The company produces strong free cash flow, has ample pricing power, a strong balance sheet, and high returns on invested capital. We have owned it before and are pleased to be able to do so again as our estimate of its value has steadily compounded, while its stock price has declined during 2023. We believe that investors with shorter term time horizons than ours are overly concerned with tough comparisons against strong pandemic results when the company flexed its pricing power and grew its adjusted operating profits at unsustainably high levels, including a greater than 28% jump in fiscal 2022, and over 8% in fiscal 2023. We estimate that Diageo will have flattish growth in fiscal 2024. We believe that the company can grow at a mid-single digit rate over the long term and that the company will most likely resume its steady growth in fiscal 2025.

BSD Analysis:
Vulcan Value Partners initiated a position in Diageo, the world's largest spirits maker, viewing it as an attractive value opportunity after the stock declined in 2023 despite the company's intrinsic value continuing to compound. The fund highlights Diageo's competitive moat through its premium brand portfolio, global distribution network, and century-old brands that provide pricing power in a highly regulated industry. The manager believes short-term investors are overreacting to difficult year-over-year comparisons following exceptional pandemic-era performance when the company achieved 28% operating profit growth in fiscal 2022. While expecting flat growth in fiscal 2024, Vulcan anticipates a return to mid-single-digit growth rates beginning in fiscal 2025. The investment thesis centers on Diageo's strong fundamentals including robust free cash flow generation, solid balance sheet, and high returns on invested capital, combined with the structural growth of the premium spirits segment globally.

Pitch Summary:
We remain convinced that FIP represents a significant asymmetric upside opportunity and is overlooked by many investors. On the surface, the company might appear on investors' screens due to its seemingly over-leveraged balance sheet. However, upon closer examination, it becomes evident that a substantial portion of FIP's debt is non-recourse, with an average interest rate of 4%. Transtar continues to generate substantial cash flow, and even the historically underperforming asset, Jefferson Terminal, has finally turned cash flow positive. In fact, when considering the debt at the holding company level, the value of Transtar alone already surpasses the current market capitalization of FIP.

BSD Analysis:
The manager presents a compelling value thesis for FTAI Infrastructure based on asset-level analysis and capital structure optimization. The investment case centers on market misunderstanding of the company's debt structure, where non-recourse financing at attractive 4% rates reduces actual leverage risk. Transtar's substantial cash flow generation provides stable income while Jefferson Terminal's turnaround to cash flow positive represents operational improvement. The sum-of-the-parts analysis suggests significant undervaluation, with Transtar alone worth more than the entire market capitalization. This creates substantial asymmetric upside potential for patient investors who understand the asset quality. The manager views current pricing as reflecting surface-level balance sheet concerns rather than underlying asset values. The position represents a classic value opportunity where complex capital structure obscures fundamental asset quality.

Pitch Summary:
Dun & Bradstreet is a global provider of business decisioning data and analytics that their customers use to determine the financial viability of their suppliers and enhance their sales efforts. The company maintains a proprietary database of approximately 400 million records on public and private business worldwide. Dun & Bradstreet possesses unique proprietary data assets as only a small percentage of the world's businesses have public financials. Their products are built into a client's workflow process which creates high switching costs as evidenced by a 96% customer retention rate, and its asset light model produces robust free cash flow. We are pleased to add Dun & Bradstreet to our portfolio.

BSD Analysis:
Vulcan Value Partners added Dun & Bradstreet to their All Cap portfolio, attracted by the company's unique data moat and strong business model characteristics. D&B maintains a proprietary database of approximately 400 million business records globally, providing critical decisioning data for supplier financial viability and sales enhancement. The investment thesis emphasizes D&B's competitive advantage through exclusive access to private company financial data, which represents the vast majority of global businesses that lack public financial disclosure. High switching costs are evidenced by an impressive 96% customer retention rate, as D&B's products become embedded in client workflow processes. The company's asset-light model generates robust free cash flow, while the mission-critical nature of credit and risk assessment services provides revenue stability. Vulcan views D&B as a high-quality data business with defensive characteristics and pricing power in an essential service category.

Pitch Summary:
On August 10th, Latch faced delisting from the Nasdaq due to the Company's inability to file restated financials by the August 4th deadline. While we had identified a delisting as a potential risk, we believed the Company was making progress to restate financials by the deadline. Official notice resulted in Latch's shares experiencing a substantial decline, erasing a significant portion of our previous gains. While this delisting didn't have an impact on the underlying business, it did lead to a considerable amount of forced selling. Based on our discussions with management, we believe the company is dedicated to restating its financial statements and eventually regaining listing on a major exchange. We remain optimistic about the company's prospects once it becomes current with its financial reporting.

BSD Analysis:
The manager maintains a bullish stance on Latch despite significant technical challenges related to financial reporting and exchange delisting. The investment thesis separates operational performance from administrative issues, arguing that delisting doesn't impact underlying business fundamentals. The manager views the current situation as creating forced selling pressure that has disconnected share price from intrinsic value. Management's commitment to restating financials and regaining major exchange listing provides a clear catalyst for value recovery. The position represents a distressed situation where technical issues have created an attractive entry point for patient capital. The manager's direct communication with management provides confidence in resolution timeline and commitment. This appears to be a special situation investment where regulatory compliance issues have created temporary valuation dislocation.

Pitch Summary:
Bureau Veritas is one of the world's largest providers of testing, inspection, and certification (TIC) services. It provides mission-critical services that ensure its customers' products comply with regulatory requirements and certification standards, as well as meet proper quality and safety thresholds. The cost of its services generally represents well under 1% of the total value of the product. The company is well-diversified, has over 80,000 employees in 140 countries and serves over 400,000 clients in a wide array of end markets, including industrial production, buildings and infrastructure, shipping and offshore infrastructure, agriculture, and consumer goods. We believe the business is stable and is experiencing long-term tailwinds from increasing regulation, complex consumer products, outsourcing, reshoring and nearshoring of supply chains, growth in renewable energy production, and a growing global middle class. Bureau Veritas has been on our MVP list for approximately a decade, and we believe concerns around macroeconomic downturn gave us the opportunity to purchase it at a discount to our estimate of intrinsic value.

BSD Analysis:
Vulcan Value Partners initiated a position in Bureau Veritas, one of the world's largest testing, inspection, and certification (TIC) service providers, after the company had been on their MVP watchlist for approximately a decade. The investment thesis centers on Bureau Veritas's mission-critical services that represent less than 1% of product values but are essential for regulatory compliance and safety standards. With over 80,000 employees across 140 countries serving 400,000+ clients, the company benefits from significant scale and diversification across industrial production, infrastructure, shipping, agriculture, and consumer goods. Vulcan identifies multiple long-term tailwinds including increasing regulation, product complexity, supply chain reshoring/nearshoring, renewable energy growth, and expanding global middle class consumption. The fund believes macroeconomic concerns created an opportunistic entry point below intrinsic value for a fundamentally stable business with strong secular growth drivers.

Pitch Summary:
Kyndryl's most recent quarterly earnings revealed several positive indicators. Gross margins showed an expansion of over 200 basis points (bps), and EBIT margins improved by nearly 200 bps compared to the previous quarter. Post-signing gross margins were in the mid-20s, and pre-tax margins were in the high single digits (HSD). As Kyndryl continues to work through its legacy backlog, we anticipate that both gross and pre-tax margins will align with the higher margins seen in recent signings.

BSD Analysis:
The manager presents a bullish case for Kyndryl based on significant margin expansion and operational improvements. Recent quarterly results showed impressive gross margin expansion of over 200 basis points and similar EBIT margin improvements, indicating successful operational execution. The company's post-signing margins in the mid-20s demonstrate pricing power and operational efficiency in new contracts. Management's ability to work through legacy backlog while maintaining high single-digit pre-tax margins suggests effective cost management. The investment thesis centers on margin convergence as legacy contracts roll off and are replaced with higher-margin new signings. This represents a classic operational turnaround story with measurable progress in profitability metrics. The manager expects continued margin improvement as the company transitions from legacy IBM contracts to independently negotiated agreements.

Pitch Summary:
Closer to home, Chicago-based Littelfuse is the largest circuit protection company in the world. The company is benefiting from the long-term trend towards electrification. However, its short-term results are being negatively impacted by pandemic related inventory de-stocking. We believe the company will resume growing within a year or so. In the meantime, we are happy to own it at a discount to our estimate of fair value.

BSD Analysis:
Vulcan Value Partners holds Littelfuse, the world's largest circuit protection company, as a play on the secular electrification trend. The Chicago-based company is positioned to benefit from the long-term shift toward electric vehicles, renewable energy, and broader electrification across industries, which drives demand for circuit protection solutions. While acknowledging near-term headwinds from pandemic-related inventory destocking that is pressuring current financial results, Vulcan expects this temporary disruption to resolve within approximately one year. The fund views the current weakness as creating an attractive valuation opportunity, allowing them to own a market-leading company with strong secular tailwinds at a discount to intrinsic value. The investment thesis relies on Littelfuse's dominant market position and the inevitable growth resumption as inventory normalization concludes and electrification trends accelerate.

Pitch Summary:
We continue to believe that the business is well positioned to provide more efficient and cost-effective solutions through its modular factory. Additionally, the upcoming approval of PMA (Parts Manufacturer Approval) parts next year should further enhance the company's capabilities.

BSD Analysis:
The manager maintains a bullish stance on FTAI Aviation based on operational efficiency advantages and regulatory catalysts. The company's modular factory approach is positioned to deliver cost-effective solutions in the aviation parts market. The pending PMA approval represents a significant near-term catalyst that should expand the company's addressable market and enhance competitive positioning. This regulatory milestone could unlock additional revenue streams and improve margins. The pitch suggests confidence in the company's operational model and strategic positioning within the aviation aftermarket. The manager views the current valuation as attractive relative to the company's operational capabilities and upcoming regulatory approvals. FTAI Aviation appears to be a core holding with both operational and regulatory catalysts supporting the investment thesis.

Pitch Summary:
Our Small Cap companies are not likely household names. For instance, we own the two largest brickmakers in the United Kingdom, Ibstock and Forterra. Domestic brickmakers cannot produce enough bricks to meet long term demand. Moreover, there is a housing shortage in the United Kingdom. Consequently, Ibstock and Forterra have strong pricing power. However, higher interest rates and a weak British economy have caused housing starts to fall which has negatively impacted demand for bricks. We believe both companies are under earning and have strong long-term fundamentals. We are happy to own them with a margin of safety in terms of price compared to our estimate of intrinsic worth.

BSD Analysis:
Vulcan Value Partners holds Forterra as the second component of their UK brickmaking duopoly investment, alongside Ibstock. The investment case mirrors that of Ibstock, centered on the structural inability of domestic brick manufacturers to satisfy long-term demand, exacerbated by the UK's ongoing housing shortage. This supply-demand imbalance grants both companies substantial pricing power in their respective markets. Despite current challenges from elevated interest rates and broader UK economic weakness that have curtailed housing starts and reduced brick demand, Vulcan maintains conviction that both companies are operating below their earnings potential. The fund views the present market conditions as creating an opportunistic entry point with significant downside protection, positioning for eventual recovery when construction activity rebounds and the fundamental supply constraints drive pricing advantages.

Pitch Summary:
Our Small Cap companies are not likely household names. For instance, we own the two largest brickmakers in the United Kingdom, Ibstock and Forterra. Domestic brickmakers cannot produce enough bricks to meet long term demand. Moreover, there is a housing shortage in the United Kingdom. Consequently, Ibstock and Forterra have strong pricing power. However, higher interest rates and a weak British economy have caused housing starts to fall which has negatively impacted demand for bricks. We believe both companies are under earning and have strong long-term fundamentals. We are happy to own them with a margin of safety in terms of price compared to our estimate of intrinsic worth.

BSD Analysis:
Vulcan Value Partners holds Ibstock as part of a duopoly position in UK brickmaking, alongside Forterra, representing the two largest domestic brick manufacturers. The investment thesis is built on structural supply-demand imbalances, where domestic production capacity cannot meet long-term demand, compounded by the UK's housing shortage. This dynamic provides both companies with significant pricing power in their markets. While acknowledging near-term headwinds from higher interest rates and economic weakness that have reduced housing starts and brick demand, Vulcan believes both companies are currently under-earning relative to their long-term potential. The fund views the current environment as creating an attractive entry point with a meaningful margin of safety, positioning for recovery when housing activity normalizes and the structural supply constraints reassert pricing advantages.

Pitch Summary:
One example that we recently purchased is Diageo. Diageo is the largest spirits maker in the world. The company focuses on the premium sector of the market, which is growing faster than the market as a whole. Several of its largest brands are over one hundred years old. Its competitive advantages include its broad portfolio of brands, global reach, distribution in a highly regulated industry, and advertising scale. The company produces strong free cash flow, has ample pricing power, a strong balance sheet, and high returns on invested capital. We have owned it before and are pleased to be able to do so again as our estimate of its value has steadily compounded, while its stock price has declined during 2023. We believe that investors with shorter term time horizons than ours are overly concerned with tough comparisons against strong pandemic results when the company flexed its pricing power and grew its adjusted operating profits at unsustainably high levels, including a greater than 28% jump in fiscal 2022, and over 8% in fiscal 2023. We estimate that Diageo will have flattish growth in fiscal 2024. We believe that the company can grow at a mid-single digit rate over the long term and that the company will most likely resume its steady growth in fiscal 2025.

BSD Analysis:
Vulcan Value Partners initiated a new position in Diageo, viewing the world's largest spirits maker as an attractive value opportunity following stock price declines in 2023. The fund highlights Diageo's competitive moat through its premium brand portfolio, global distribution network, and century-old brands that provide pricing power in a regulated industry. Management believes the market is overreacting to tough year-over-year comparisons against exceptional pandemic-era performance, when operating profits surged 28% in fiscal 2022 and 8% in fiscal 2023. While expecting flat growth in fiscal 2024, Vulcan anticipates a return to mid-single-digit growth rates beginning in fiscal 2025. The investment thesis centers on Diageo's strong fundamentals including robust free cash flow generation, solid balance sheet, and high returns on invested capital, combined with the company's focus on the faster-growing premium spirits segment.

Pitch Summary:
Dun & Bradstreet is a global provider of business decisioning data and analytics that their customers use to determine the financial viability of their suppliers and enhance their sales efforts. The company maintains a proprietary database of approximately 400 million records on public and private business worldwide. Dun & Bradstreet possesses unique proprietary data assets as only a small percentage of the world's businesses have public financials. Their products are built into a client's workflow process which creates high switching costs as evidenced by a 96% customer retention rate, and its asset light model produces robust free cash flow. We are pleased to add Dun & Bradstreet to our portfolio.

BSD Analysis:
Vulcan Value Partners added Dun & Bradstreet to their All Cap portfolio, attracted by the company's unique data moat and strong business model characteristics. The investment thesis centers on D&B's proprietary database of approximately 400 million business records globally, providing critical decisioning data for credit risk assessment and sales enhancement. The company's competitive advantage stems from its unique access to private company financial data, as most global businesses lack public financial disclosure. High switching costs are evidenced by an impressive 96% customer retention rate, as D&B's products become embedded in client workflow processes. The asset-light business model generates robust free cash flow, while the mission-critical nature of the data creates pricing power and recurring revenue streams. Vulcan views this as an attractive addition given the combination of data moat, high retention, and strong cash generation characteristics.

Pitch Summary:
Bureau Veritas is one of the world's largest providers of testing, inspection, and certification (TIC) services. It provides mission-critical services that ensure its customers' products comply with regulatory requirements and certification standards, as well as meet proper quality and safety thresholds. The cost of its services generally represents well under 1% of the total value of the product. The company is well-diversified, has over 80,000 employees in 140 countries and serves over 400,000 clients in a wide array of end markets, including industrial production, buildings and infrastructure, shipping and offshore infrastructure, agriculture, and consumer goods. We believe the business is stable and is experiencing long-term tailwinds from increasing regulation, complex consumer products, outsourcing, reshoring and nearshoring of supply chains, growth in renewable energy production, and a growing global middle class. Bureau Veritas has been on our MVP list for approximately a decade, and we believe concerns around macroeconomic downturn gave us the opportunity to purchase it at a discount to our estimate of intrinsic value.

BSD Analysis:
Vulcan Value Partners initiated a position in Bureau Veritas, one of the world's largest testing, inspection, and certification (TIC) service providers. The investment thesis centers on the company's mission-critical services that represent less than 1% of product value but are essential for regulatory compliance and safety standards. With over 80,000 employees across 140 countries serving 400,000+ clients, Bureau Veritas benefits from significant scale and diversification across industrial production, infrastructure, shipping, agriculture, and consumer goods. The company is positioned to benefit from multiple long-term tailwinds including increasing regulation, product complexity, supply chain reshoring/nearshoring, renewable energy growth, and expanding global middle class consumption. After being on Vulcan's MVP watchlist for approximately a decade, macroeconomic concerns provided an attractive entry point at a discount to intrinsic value estimates.

Pitch Summary:
Closer to home, Chicago-based Littelfuse is the largest circuit protection company in the world. The company is benefiting from the long-term trend towards electrification. However, its short-term results are being negatively impacted by pandemic related inventory de-stocking. We believe the company will resume growing within a year or so. In the meantime, we are happy to own it at a discount to our estimate of fair value.

BSD Analysis:
Vulcan Value Partners owns Littelfuse, the world's largest circuit protection company, as a play on the long-term electrification trend. The Chicago-based company is well-positioned to benefit from the structural shift toward electric vehicles, renewable energy, and broader electrification across industries. While the company faces near-term headwinds from pandemic-related inventory destocking that is pressuring current financial results, Vulcan expects this temporary disruption to resolve within approximately one year. The fund views the current weakness as cyclical rather than structural, believing Littelfuse will resume growth as inventory normalization completes. Management sees the current valuation as attractive relative to fair value estimates, providing an opportunity to own a market leader in circuit protection at a discount while the long-term electrification thesis remains intact.

Pitch Summary:
Our Small Cap companies are not likely household names. For instance, we own the two largest brickmakers in the United Kingdom, Ibstock and Forterra. Domestic brickmakers cannot produce enough bricks to meet long term demand. Moreover, there is a housing shortage in the United Kingdom. Consequently, Ibstock and Forterra have strong pricing power. However, higher interest rates and a weak British economy have caused housing starts to fall which has negatively impacted demand for bricks. We believe both companies are under earning and have strong long-term fundamentals. We are happy to own them with a margin of safety in terms of price compared to our estimate of intrinsic worth.

BSD Analysis:
Vulcan Value Partners holds Forterra as the second component of their UK brick manufacturing duopoly investment, alongside Ibstock. The investment case mirrors that of Ibstock, centered on structural supply constraints where domestic brick production capacity falls short of long-term demand requirements. The UK's housing shortage further amplifies this supply-demand imbalance, granting both companies significant pricing power. Current cyclical headwinds from elevated interest rates and broader UK economic weakness have temporarily suppressed housing construction activity and brick demand. However, Vulcan believes both companies are currently under-earning relative to their normalized profit potential and possess robust long-term business fundamentals. The fund views current valuations as providing an attractive margin of safety relative to intrinsic value estimates.

Pitch Summary:
Our Small Cap companies are not likely household names. For instance, we own the two largest brickmakers in the United Kingdom, Ibstock and Forterra. Domestic brickmakers cannot produce enough bricks to meet long term demand. Moreover, there is a housing shortage in the United Kingdom. Consequently, Ibstock and Forterra have strong pricing power. However, higher interest rates and a weak British economy have caused housing starts to fall which has negatively impacted demand for bricks. We believe both companies are under earning and have strong long-term fundamentals. We are happy to own them with a margin of safety in terms of price compared to our estimate of intrinsic worth.

BSD Analysis:
Vulcan Value Partners holds Ibstock as part of a duopoly position in UK brick manufacturing, alongside Forterra. The investment thesis is built on structural supply-demand imbalances, where domestic production capacity cannot meet long-term demand, compounded by a significant housing shortage in the UK. This dynamic provides both companies with substantial pricing power in their markets. While near-term headwinds from higher interest rates and economic weakness have reduced housing starts and brick demand, Vulcan views current earnings as depressed relative to normalized levels. The fund believes both companies possess strong long-term fundamentals and are trading at attractive valuations relative to intrinsic value, providing a margin of safety for patient investors willing to look through cyclical weakness.