Investment Pitches

Pitch Summary:
Portillo's shares detracted from performance but remain a core position. While we supported former CEO Michael Asanloo’s strategic vision, execution under his leadership was slow, prompting a change from the board. White Brook’s thesis remains intact, centered on improving financing and operations efficiency to unlock restaurant-level margin expansion. The new CEO, a former Darden Restaurants executive, is expected to accelerate execution and refine the strategy, leveraging operational expertise and capital discipline to achieve growth.

BSD Analysis:
Portillo’s is a cult-classic Midwest brand scaling with surprising efficiency in new markets. Unit economics are strong, margins improving, and traffic loyalty unusually high for a fast-casual chain. Expansion outside Illinois is still early but looks encouraging. The brand travels better than skeptics predicted. Valuation bakes in caution, not growth. If Portillo’s proves it can scale nationally, the upside is massive. A high-beta restaurant growth story with real brand heat.

Pitch Summary:
ASM International is a leading provider of essential semi-cap equipment for front-end technology processes used to build chips. ASM dominates the market for Atomic Layer Deposition, increasingly needed for building logic gates on the smallest chips. The AI boom is fueling ongoing advances in semiconductors, leading to smaller and more powerful chips. We believe ASM’s business can grow earnings at a high-teens rate for the next five years.

BSD Analysis:
ASM is riding the front edge of the AI semicap wave with leadership in ALD and epitaxy — two processes that only get more important as transistor complexity explodes. Revenue visibility is growing, margins are expanding, and the company’s tech pipeline is world-class. Investors still treat ASM like a second-tier European equipment maker — completely wrong. This is a core enabler of advanced logic and memory. As node shrinks accelerate, reliance on ASM deepens. A stealth semiconductor king with multi-year upside. Underpriced for its strategic importance.

Pitch Summary:
Disco Corp is a Japanese leader in essential semi-cap equipment for back-end chip manufacturing. The company specializes in dicing, grinding, and polishing silicon wafers, with equipment used throughout the semiconductor process—from initial cutting to final packaging. Back-end technology is increasingly important for AI, as advanced chip packages require extensive processing by Disco machines. We believe Disco can compound total returns at a high teens rate over the next five years.

BSD Analysis:
Disco is a precision-cutting and grinding tools powerhouse that sits at the center of semiconductor packaging — an increasingly strategic bottleneck in the AI era. Margins are elite, technology leadership is deep, and customer reliance is absolute. As chip architectures become more complex, Disco’s tools become more mission critical. Demand may be cyclical, but Disco’s niche is structural. The stock trades at a premium — and still looks cheap relative to its moat. A Japanese semiconductor infrastructure gem. Quiet excellence, massive relevance.

Pitch Summary:
SAP came under pressure in the quarter as management issued a more subdued near-term outlook, noting longer sales cycles in US public sector and industrial manufacturing due to trade uncertainties. This was despite cloud revenue growth exceeding expectations and continued backlog strength. We continue to view SAP as one of the more resilient large-scale software business models given its mission-critical role in customers’ operations. Given its strong market position, vast partner ecosystem, balanced growth across new and existing customers, high recurring revenues, and improving margins, we believe SAP is well positioned to continue delivering at least mid-teens earnings growth for many years to come.

BSD Analysis:
SAP is finally executing the cloud pivot investors doubted for years, with RISE and S/4HANA cloud backlog exploding. Recurring revenue is rising, margins are inflecting, and customer churn is almost nonexistent thanks to SAP’s stranglehold on mission-critical workflows. The company’s data stack and AI initiatives give it long-term leverage across global enterprises. Bears cling to legacy perceptions, but SAP is behaving like a modern SaaS giant. Visibility is excellent, and execution is cleaner every quarter. If the market re-rates SAP like a true cloud platform, upside is meaningful. A long-duration European software winner.

Pitch Summary:
Despite beating expectations on the top and bottom line, Monday.com sold off on the back of its earnings report given conservative Q3 and full-year guidance. Shares now trade for a lower valuation. We see revenue growth sustaining at over 20% and used this weakness as an opportunity to add to our position as we like Monday’s steady push up-market from SMB to enterprise customers, its expanding platform reach, and long-term vast market opportunities relative to its current size.

BSD Analysis:
Monday has built one of the cleanest, most flexible work-automation platforms in SaaS, with usage expanding well beyond project tracking into CRM, ops, and workflow orchestration. Growth remains strong, margins are expanding rapidly, and enterprise adoption is picking up. AI tools are embedding deeper into the platform, giving customers more reasons to standardize on Monday. Critics argue it’s “just another productivity tool” — wrong. Monday is quietly becoming an operating system for knowledge work. Cash flow is inflecting at exactly the right scale. A high-quality SaaS compounder entering its next leg.

Pitch Summary:
Sage Group shares lagged in the quarter as global software shares weakened over fears about AI displacements. Negative narratives across the IT and software industry propagated in recent quarters. We disagree with investor worries that enterprise software will be replaced by AI-supported software. We think Sage’s business remains well positioned to deliver steady growth as it enables small businesses to efficiently manage their financials.

BSD Analysis:
Sage’s cloud transformation is finally accelerating, with subscription growth rising and churn dropping as SMBs adopt cloud-native accounting and payroll tools. Margins are expanding as legacy drag fades, and the company’s renewed product focus is landing with customers. For years, Sage was dismissed as a stale UK software relic — but that perception is breaking. Competitive risks are lower than critics think: SMB workflows are sticky, and Sage’s ecosystem is becoming harder to replace. Cash flow is excellent, and the valuation is still modest relative to peers. A mid-cap SaaS revival story with real momentum. Under-owned and under-appreciated.

Pitch Summary:
ICON plc, the world’s largest contract research organization, delivered top and bottom-line results that exceeded expectations. Improving bookings growth pointed to stabilization and potentially recovery after a challenging past 12 months when its customer base tightened R&D outlays. We added to our position as we believe the cyclical slowdown in healthcare could be ending and that ICON is poised to return to steady, low double-digit EPS growth.

BSD Analysis:
ICON is one of the strongest CRO operators globally, combining scale, therapeutic depth, and data capabilities that pharma can’t easily replicate in-house. Outsourcing trends remain robust, and ICON continues to win large, multi-year programs from big pharma. Margins are rising, execution is tight, and revenue visibility is best-in-class. The market still prices CROs like semi-cyclicals — outdated thinking. ICON is becoming infrastructure for global drug development. A durable, compounding clinical-services giant. Quiet, consistent, and significantly undervalued.

Pitch Summary:
ASML finished the quarter strong, with the stock up significantly in September. Semiconductor capital equipment companies benefitted from investor optimism around AI. Advanced chips are central to AI and ASML’s equipment is essential to printing advanced logic and volatile memory chips. Concerns about a slowdown in the memory chip industry and about Intel waned during the quarter, helping lift semi-cap stocks.

BSD Analysis:
ASML is the single most important chokepoint in global semiconductor manufacturing — and every AI chip, GPU, and advanced node flows through its tools. EUV capacity is booked years out, and High-NA EUV will widen the moat into something approaching geological permanence. Margins are elite, cash flow endless, and geopolitical noise only raises ASML’s strategic value. There is no competitor, no substitute, no parallel. The market calls it expensive; reality calls it a monopoly. ASML is the tollbooth for the AI megacycle. A secular winner immune to cyclical fear.

Pitch Summary:
Shopify represented the top contributor to relative and absolute performance in the third quarter of 2025. The company reported very strong results showcasing accelerating revenue and gross merchandise volume growth. The company has made investments in its enterprise business, offline point of sale business, B2B, international growth and AI—all of which continue to drive value for merchants and make the business more durable.

BSD Analysis:
Shopify remains the beating heart of independent e-commerce, with merchants more loyal than ever and GMV power climbing again. The pivot to higher-margin payments, capital, and logistics-light operations is working. AI-enhanced storefronts and workflow automation deepen stickiness and expand monetizable surfaces across the platform. Bears say growth is slowing — but Shopify is still taking share from everyone. Operating leverage is reappearing, and the balance sheet is pristine. This is a long-duration digital commerce powerhouse. A premium platform still priced below its strategic relevance.

Pitch Summary:
We’ve fully exited our position in Globant following the company’s weaker-than-expected Q1 2025 earnings report and disappointing FY25 revenue guidance. While the company has managed to maintain outsized revenue growth relative to its IT services peers for several quarters, recent guidance projecting low single-digit revenue growth for FY25 brings its outlook roughly in line with the peer group. This outcome speaks to the more protracted IT services spending weakness that may continue, and the potentially more discretionary nature of Globant’s business model (which is heavily consulting-based and less reliant on multi-year outsourcing contracts than many larger competitors). Globant may be worth revisiting at a later date, if and when growth reaccelerates. For now, however, we see better risk / reward opportunities elsewhere.

BSD Analysis:
Globant is executing one of the cleanest digital transformation stories globally, blending creative, engineering, and AI into a differentiated value proposition. It consistently grows faster than peers with better margins and better client stickiness. The company wins business that legacy IT outsourcers can’t touch. AI-native service capabilities give it a long runway. Despite elite fundamentals, the stock trades below top-tier software services comps. Globant is a stealth global leader with a multi-year compounder profile. One of the best operators in digital services.

Pitch Summary:
We initiated a position in IDEXX Labs, a global leader in pet diagnostics, offering in-clinic diagnostics via a razor-and-blades business model—selling instruments and recurring consumables—as well as out-of-clinic reference lab services. We have researched the business for two decades and admired its durable competitive advantages, highly recurring and profitable business model, attractive runway, supported by tailwinds from pet ownership and the “humanization of pets,” and solid execution by its management team. IDEXX employs a successful "surround the customer" strategy by offering diagnostic tests across many modalities, along with imaging and veterinary practice management software. With a dominant market share in pet diagnostic tests, IDEXX continues expanding its addressable market by innovating new testing types and creating additional revenue streams for its veterinary customers. We envision many years of continued innovation and market expansion, with minimal competitive threat. Historically, we questioned IDEXX's persistently high valuation. However, the recent transitory business slowdown—driven by fewer vet clinic visits as COVID-era pets remain relatively young—has made the valuation more attractive. We believe the company’s long-term outlook remains essentially unchanged. As these pets approach 6-7 years of age, their vet care needs will increase, supporting our expectation for sustained double-digit organic revenue growth and mid-to-high teens EPS growth at least in line with the portfolio average. We expect IDEXX to exhibit safety-like characteristics due to its unique competitive position, recurring revenue stream, and loyal shareholder base.

BSD Analysis:
IDEXX remains the gold standard in veterinary diagnostics, with a razor-blade model that delivers recurring revenue and elite margins. Pet healthcare demand is consistently resilient, even in slower macro periods. R&D investment keeps IDEXX ahead of competitors, and its ecosystem lock-in is massive. Valuation always looks expensive — because it deserves to. Cash flow is exceptional, and international expansion remains strong. This is one of the most reliable compounders in healthcare. A premium name worth the premium.

Pitch Summary:
We have reestablished our position in Starbucks, now under the leadership of newly appointed CEO Brian Niccol, formerly of Chipotle. Niccol has articulated a clear, multi-pronged turnaround plan that we view as both practical and achievable. We believe Starbucks’ store operations became overly complex, resulting in over-tasked baristas and a poor customer experience. Having successfully revitalized Chipotle, we view Niccol as the right leader for Starbucks. He has already identified fixes for in-store operations, marketing, and customer service that we believe can potentially result in meaningful impact in the not-too-distant future, provided they are effectively scaled across 17,000 U.S. stores. We believe Starbucks retains an aspirational brand and a loyal customer base. As such, we see solid growth ahead through store productivity, new-store growth, and significant margin expansion. After a few years of mismanagement and a languishing stock, we expect considerable upside for this iconic brand.

BSD Analysis:
Starbucks is stumbling through a rough patch of weak U.S. traffic and China softness, but the brand remains one of the strongest global consumer franchises. Margin reset is underway, and automation investments are starting to pay off. International expansion remains a bright spot, and loyalty engagement is still elite. Bears treat Starbucks like a dying chain — far from reality. This is a temporary operational stumble, not a structural decline. When sentiment stabilizes, the multiple expands quickly. A bruised, not broken, consumer giant.

Pitch Summary:
AI re-emerged as the dominant narrative, driving much of the market’s leadership in the second quarter. Oracle was our top-owned relative contributor, up 56% in the quarter (and 76% since the market bottom on April 9) as the market embraced a meaningful acceleration in growth driven by the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) segment. The company appears to be in the early stages of a significant revenue growth increase, fueled partly by its position as a go-to cloud infrastructure provider for training generative AI models. This is only one facet of the investment thesis. Oracle has been successfully migrating enterprise software customers to the cloud as well and is, for the first time, able to finally bring its database clients to the cloud, creating a multi-pronged growth investment thesis.

BSD Analysis:
Oracle’s GPU-heavy, high-bandwidth cloud is actually winning enterprise AI workloads — a pivot almost nobody saw coming. Database remains a sticky cash cow, and modernization continues to bring customers deeper into Oracle’s ecosystem. Cerner drag is fading fast. The market still sees legacy tech, but the fundamentals scream modern infrastructure. Cloud growth is accelerating at a multi-year high. If Oracle sustains this momentum, valuation looks far too cheap. A stealth AI beneficiary with real traction.

Pitch Summary:
We hold IQVIA in the portfolio, which jumped 16% over the quarter on improved market visibility. We first bought into IQVIA earlier this year at below $160. The stock is currently above $200 and has 40% to go to hit its 2021 levels. Pharmaceutical investment has been really hit by political and policy uncertainty, rather than any issue with the quality of research or products in the market. We see a long pathway of recovery for stocks like IQVIA.

BSD Analysis:
IQVIA dominates the CRO and healthcare data ecosystem with scale, analytics capability, and client relationships no competitor can match. R&D cycles remain robust, and IQVIA’s integrated data + execution model is becoming harder for pharma to replace. Margins are strong, cash flow is excellent, and backlog visibility is best-in-class. Regulatory noise comes and goes, but IQVIA’s moat doesn’t budge. Market jitters about biotech spending are overdone. This is a premium healthcare infrastructure compounder. One of the most irreplaceable service platforms in the industry.

Pitch Summary:
Away from the world of AI, one of the more interesting company-specific stories this quarter came from Indonesian conglomerate Astra International. For years, sprawling family-controlled groups like Astra have traded at a “conglomerate discount” – the market values the company at less than the sum of its individual parts. The fear with conglomerates is that capital gets misallocated, with cash from star divisions (like Astra’s automotive business) used to fund less promising ventures. However, the announcement of a formal strategic review within the company signals a potential sea-change. This isn't happening in a vacuum. Astra’s parent, the storied Hong Kong-based group, Jardine Matheson, has itself been taking steps to simplify its notoriously complex structure. The review at Astra suggests this modernising mindset is filtering down. It implies a new focus on portfolio discipline: critically evaluating each business, selling off non-core assets and reallocating capital to the highest-return opportunities. For shareholders, this is a welcome sign that management is serious about unlocking the value within its complex structure. The stock was up nearly 30% over the September quarter.

BSD Analysis:
Astra is Indonesia’s industrial and consumer backbone, with autos, financial services, mining, and agribusiness creating a diversified earnings machine. Growth isn’t flashy, but stability and cash generation are excellent. As Indonesia accelerates infrastructure and consumer growth, Astra sits in the center of the flywheel. Investors still treat it like a cyclical instead of the structural compounder it is. Governance is solid for a conglomerate, and capital allocation has improved. This is EM quality masquerading as a value stock. Extremely under-owned relative to its durability.

Pitch Summary:
Wolverine Worldwide owns a portfolio of footwear brands. Like Amer Sport, it lacked the resources and leadership to commercialise its best assets. A new management team is implementing a much-needed shake-up, focusing resources on key brands. Saucony has long held a powerful reputation among elite runners but failed to translate this halo effect into mainstream appeal. Its distribution was strong in specialty running stores but nearly non-existent in major sporting goods channels. When Nike made its ruinous strategic error of focusing on direct-to-consumer sales, it left a vacuum in the wholesale channel that brands like Hoka, On and New Balance eagerly filled. Saucony fumbled the opportunity, probably due to leadership flux at the time. Fortunately, the current ‘retro runner’ fashion trend gave Saucony a second shot. Alongside New Balance and Asics, Saucony has a deep archive of heritage styles that resonate with today's consumer and this is unlocking shelf space at mainstream retailers. While distribution has expanded rapidly, Saucony is still only in approximately 3,000 wholesale doors – for context, On and Birkenstock are in three to four times as many. The early results of this new focus are compelling, with Saucony’s sales growth accelerating to 40% year-on-year in the latest quarter and the stock up 40% over the same period. Higher sales and margins at Saucony lift the entire Wolverine enterprise, providing the capital to reinvest in its growth and, eventually, to replicate this playbook with the Merrell footwear brand. The company has halved its debt in two years and is expected to deliver 33% earnings growth this year. Despite this operational turnaround and clear growth runway, the stock trades at just 21x earnings.

BSD Analysis:
Wolverine is deep in restructuring mode, divesting distractions and refocusing on core brands like Merrell and Saucony. Margins remain depressed, but the cleanup is working and debt is trending downward. Distribution is stabilizing, and product relevance is improving. The stock trades like a broken footwear conglomerate, but the worst appears past. This is a real turnaround with leverage to even modest execution. If Wolverine restores brand heat, equity upside is meaningful. High torque, high skepticism — classic recovery setup.

Pitch Summary:
Amer Sport is a Finnish company with a portfolio of niche sporting brands like Arc’teryx, Salomon and Wilson. In this video we explained how new management gave them the capital and expertise to truly unlock their potential. Amer Sport’s sales grew 19% in 2024 and are projected to grow 23% in 2025. This growth is coming from the higher-margin, faster-growing Arc’teryx and Salomon brands. This shift in the mix resulted in earnings growth of 5x in 2024 and an expected 34% in 2025. We anticipate this combination of top-line growth and margin expansion will persist, given the brands' early stages of penetration in key geographies and product categories. Amer now have the ability to pay down a large and tax-inefficient debt load.

BSD Analysis:
Amer Sports is leaning hard into athleisure and premium sports equipment with Wilson, Arc’teryx, and Salomon — three brands gaining real global momentum. Arc’teryx alone could justify the long-term bull case. Margins are expanding as DTC ramps and product mix shifts toward higher-ticket performance gear. Debt is elevated post-IPO, but the growth engine looks strong. The market worries about valuation, missing the brand strength. If execution stays tight, Amer becomes a multi-brand global winner. A premium consumer growth story with runway.

Pitch Summary:
Until a decade ago, Birkenstock was a sleepy, family-owned European business. With a 250-year heritage, its brand was iconic, but the business was stagnant – mismanaged, bloated and directionless. In 2013, a new CEO, Oliver Reichart, was appointed to professionalise the enterprise. A decade later, Birkenstock is a lean, sharp, commercial machine. The brand has broadened its appeal from ‘hippies, grannies, and tourists’ into the fashion mainstream, attracting an army of advocates that includes a roster of celebrities. All while retaining its cherished authenticity. This metamorphosis caught the eye of LVMH's Bernard Arnault, whose family office acquired the business in 2021 and took it public again in 2023, retaining a two-thirds stake. Arnault, perhaps the world's most astute brand investor, recognised the inherent power of this sleeping giant. The results speak for themselves. Birkenstock's sales (for its September year-end) grew by 20% in 2024 and are on track for 18% growth in 2025. This top-line growth, combined with significant margin expansion, led to earnings growth of 2.5x in 2024 and a projected 50% in 2025. The company is mobilising its existing assets to grow more efficiently, resulting in a return on capital employed of nearly 50%. Yet after falling 10% during the quarter, the stock trades on just 22x trailing earnings. Here we have a fast-growing company with a resilient business, a loyal customer base, and returns on capital that would make most technology firms blush, all at a below-market valuation multiple.

BSD Analysis:
Birkenstock is one of the most durable global footwear brands, combining orthopedic function with fashion relevance in a way no competitor can replicate. Pricing power is elite, margins strong, and demand resilient across regions. The wholesale-to-DTC pivot is boosting profitability and brand control. The market doubts whether sandals can scale forever — but Birkenstock keeps proving the TAM is bigger than skeptics think. Supply chain is tight but improving. This is a premium brand with multi-year compounding potential. Underestimated, underpriced, and structurally advantaged.

Pitch Summary:
Preformed Line Products (PLPC) produces critical components for power and telecom infrastructure, including connectors, closures, and fittings that ensure reliability and resilience. The firm benefits from rising demand for grid modernization and broadband expansion. Debt-free and underfollowed, PLPC represents a durable compounder within industrial infrastructure.

BSD Analysis:
PLPC is an old-school components manufacturer thriving in an infrastructure expansion cycle thanks to its specialized hardware for power and telecom networks. Demand is strong, margins are high, and the balance sheet is pristine. The company flies under every institutional radar despite its strategic role in grid modernization. Its global footprint and long-term utility relationships create consistency that belies its microcap label. PLPC is not a growth rocket, but it’s a cash machine. Valuation remains absurdly low relative to fundamentals. A value sleeper with real durability.

Pitch Summary:
Belden (BDC) has evolved from a traditional cabling business to a network solutions provider under CEO Dr. Ashish Chand. Its Horizon software and hardware systems integrate AI-enabled networking for industrial and security markets. Revenue and EPS growth have averaged 10–15% annually, driven by higher-margin recurring business.

BSD Analysis:
Belden is a quietly elite provider of industrial networking, signal transmission, and cybersecurity infrastructure. Its pivot toward higher-value automation and data center products has boosted margins and visibility. Execution is consistently strong, and the company has cleaned up its portfolio. Despite this, it still trades at a discount to other industrial tech names. Belden is deeply entrenched in mission-critical applications. As automation accelerates, its importance increases. A mature but underrated industrial-tech franchise.