Investment Pitches

Pitch Summary:
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) and Las Vegas Sands (LVS) provide a calculated bridge to the Chinese economy—without the direct exposure and risk that typically come with mainland investments. These companies maintain significant assets in Macau, the world’s largest gaming hub, which functions as a unique access point to Chinese consumer demand. In the wake of COVID, there has been a great deal of uncertainty about a potential rebound. But we see an optimistic picture emerging: a rebound in tourism, a gradual reorientation of China’s domestic economy toward consumption, and an underappreciated opportunity to capture upside in Asian discretionary spending. What makes this position compelling is the structure—U.S.-based corporations benefiting from Chinese growth dynamics while operating under the legal and financial protections of American capital markets. As Chinese wealth creation resumes and regional travel flows normalize, we believe companies like WYNN and LVS are positioned to be long-term beneficiaries. LVS shares these advantages while benefiting from scale in Macau and Singapore.

BSD Analysis:
Las Vegas Sands is the undisputed, cash-generative global oligopolist in convention-based Integrated Resorts, now running a surgically clean, Asia-only pure-play. The core moat is its concentration on the high-margin mass market gaming segment in Macau and Singapore, which generates superior margins compared to VIP play. The company’s Marina Bay Sands in Singapore is a compounding machine, delivering Adjusted Property EBITDA in excess of US$2 billion for the first time in 2024. LVS converts this colossal cash flow into direct shareholder returns, having repurchased $500 million of common stock in Q3 2025 and increasing its annual dividend to $1.20 per share. With $3.65 billion in unrestricted cash, LVS is a conviction bet on the stability and growth of Asian middle-class tourism, secured by a fortress balance sheet and relentless capital return.

Pitch Summary:
Wynn Resorts (WYNN) and Las Vegas Sands (LVS) provide a calculated bridge to the Chinese economy—without the direct exposure and risk that typically come with mainland investments. These companies maintain significant assets in Macau, the world’s largest gaming hub, which functions as a unique access point to Chinese consumer demand. In the wake of COVID, there has been a great deal of uncertainty about a potential rebound. But we see an optimistic picture emerging: a rebound in tourism, a gradual reorientation of China’s domestic economy toward consumption, and an underappreciated opportunity to capture upside in Asian discretionary spending. What makes this position compelling is the structure—U.S.-based corporations benefiting from Chinese growth dynamics while operating under the legal and financial protections of American capital markets. As Chinese wealth creation resumes and regional travel flows normalize, we believe companies like WYNN and LVS are positioned to be long-term beneficiaries. These are plays on the next phase of China’s consumer story—but executed through entities governed by robust disclosure standards, shareholder protections, and capital allocation discipline.

BSD Analysis:
Wynn Resorts is an ultra-luxury arbitrage play on a massive, non-cyclical structural pivot to the UAE and post-COVID Macau recovery. The core thesis is driven by the imminent launch of Wynn Al Marjan Island in 2027, which grants the company a first-mover advantage and a near-monopoly in a potentially multi-billion-dollar new Middle Eastern market. This aggressive international expansion is already reflected in its 37.7% one-year total shareholder return. While the stock trades at a slight premium to the US Hospitality sector average, its 26.3x P/E ratio is attractive compared to the average peer at 61x. Analysts maintain a "Strong Buy" consensus and estimate an 18.4% upside from current prices, believing the market is significantly underpricing the transformative earnings growth and margin improvement from its international leverage.

Pitch Summary:
Canal+ – French media company Canal+ was a top performer in the quarter. Canal+ is one of the entities Vivendi spun off last year. It had a difficult start as a standalone listing, as can happen sometimes with spin-offs. The company has since been finding its footing as the year has gone on, and it continues to be one of our most compelling ideas, which we detailed further in our May Research Perspectives note.

BSD Analysis:
Canal+ is a European premium media and streaming operator with strong local content, sports rights, and international expansion ambitions. While global streamers fight for scale, Canal+ thrives by focusing on regional depth and curated premium experiences. Its pay-TV base remains sticky, especially in France, and African growth adds a meaningful long-term vector. ARPU is high thanks to sports and exclusive content. The shift toward multi-platform distribution improves resilience. Canal+ isn’t trying to be Netflix — it’s trying to own premium niches. A steady media operator with real pricing power.

Pitch Summary:
Around 18 months ago now we discovered Nu Holdings. Its low unit-costs, customer obsession and disruptor mindset in the lazy world of consumer banking immediately sparked our interest. Simply put Nu Holdings has the best unit costs in global full service banking (75% below peers and still falling). It uses these low costs not to boost profits but instead to offer customers better interest rates (e.g. Nu's 12% Mexican deposit rate vs c.5% offered by peers). Because of this and its high customer service focus, Nu is rightly loved by consumers. This can be seen in the speed with which 118m customers have flocked to it but also in its great Net Promoter Scores (NPS). The global banking industry consumer offering has not really changed much in 50 years. We think that might be about to change. We think Nu has the right building blocks and culture in place to challenge not just banks in Latin America, but globally. Nu has real dedication to low-units costs combined with a desire to innovate and share such cost efficiencies with its customers. It is also obsessed with delighting the customer. These traits when combined create a powerful flywheel model that has been super successful in other industries and geographies. No one (except Wise) is trying to take this model into financial services, until now. All this is symptomatic of the disruptor business models we seek out and what we look for in a business model with a long runway of growth. Indeed, when we wrote about 'Supernatural Compounders' in our Nirvana piece, Nu was at the forefront of our mind. Two further points interest us about Nu. The first is the giant scope of growth in front of it as arguably the whole global banking industry is ripe for this type of disruption. The second is how much the company's current earnings are depressed, suggesting the shares are not as expensive as they look. To compete with Nu, incumbent banks will need future cost bases that are c.75% lower than today's and more importantly a management mentality that passes much of that new efficiency on to customers. This would mean a re-basing of profits to much lower levels. From today's starting point of incumbent bank culture and customer/shareholder relations this will be almost impossible to achieve. With super low and stable unit-costs each dollar increase in ARPU is highly profitable to the company. Particularly so, when such growth is just driven by existing customers maturing in their relationship with the company. At a c.60% incremental profit rate were the company's ARPU to be $15 not $11.2 its annual profits today would be $4.8bn not $2.2bn. Adjusting for this reduces the Dec24 PE from 28x to 13x. Remember this is a historic multiple for a company growing 25-40% pa. Also, one with a runway to keep growing at similar rates for many years into the future.

BSD Analysis:
Nu Holdings is a high-growth, disruptive digital banking titan whose stock is a conviction bet on the structural, multi-year digital transformation of financial services across Latin America. The core thesis is driven by its massive customer base of 105 million in Brazil (representing 60% of the adult population). This scale creates significant cross-selling opportunities across its expanding product portfolio. The company's low-cost, digital-only model and advanced AI capabilities for credit risk assessment drive superior profitability: Return on Equity (ROE) is projected to remain robust at 29% through 2030. Nu is a high-quality compounder, leveraging its technological edge to capture the multi-trillion-dollar Latin American banking market.

Pitch Summary:
Brookfield Corporation is a holding company that manages investment strategies in direct real estate, asset management, private equity, and insurance. The company's longstanding expertise comes from its heritage in real estate investing, where it continues to hold an extensive portfolio of high-profile and trophy properties in the office, retail, and hospitality sectors. Through the firm's ownership of Brookfield Asset Management (BAM), it provides institutional investment portfolios with a significant focus on real estate, including projects related to energy and infrastructure. BAM's key holdings in these business lines include: Brookfield Renewable Partners, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, and Brookfield Property Group. Brookfield Corp. is also in the process of growing its wealth solutions business through insurance-related offerings in annuities. The advantages of real estate in an environment of unstable currencies can be seen through two lenses. First, rental contracts with tenants generally have escalation clauses that compensate the lessor for rising inflation, thereby creating a built-in hedge for future cash flows. Second, because real estate is a hard asset, itself composed of various commodities, it has a readily discernible replacement value that can be calculated with some level of agreement in the marketplace. These two factors tend to protect real estate assets against depreciating currencies over longer periods of time. In addition to the core fundamental inflation hedges in its business, we are also drawn to Brookfield's focus on growth in the real estate sector through investment activities related to AI data centers and the increasing demand for electricity driven by the digital economy. Importantly, the company's global scale enables it to make these investments across various geographies and political jurisdictions, thereby diversifying its exposure to a single currency or economic policy. For instance, the company is investing in the buildout of AI data centers across Europe with key projects in Sweden and France, as well as in the United States. While we believe the two drivers we described above represent attractive fundamental qualities in this economic environment, and for that matter, future ones, we can also cite the scale at which Brookfield can deploy capital as a competitive advantage in this economy. The simple fact is that at the holding company level, it houses $155 billion in capital on its balance sheet, controls $110 billion in insurance float, and its asset management companies carry an AUM of approximately $1 trillion. We believe these levels of assets enable Brookfield and its subsidiaries to participate at their discretion in what is shaping up to be a significant global capex cycle in capital-intensive investments, as new technologies related to AI, electricity demand, and even country-specific stories such as India spur a widespread need for investment and the necessary financing. In other words, we believe the company is well-positioned to deploy capital at scale. Doing so, should sustain its profile as a growing company in a world that is embracing new technologies yet becoming increasingly fragmented and self-reliant. In conclusion, we believe Brookfield offers a unique combination of downside protection and scalable upside in a rapidly evolving global economy.

BSD Analysis:
Brookfield is a unique, best-in-class asset manager that functions as a publicly-traded, LBO-style holding company, offering investors leveraged, long-duration exposure to essential global assets. The core thesis is the relentless growth of its Asset Management (BAM) fee income, which is insulated by massive, long-term fund commitments (e.g., 15-year lock-ups) and drives predictable, high-margin cash flow. This entire model is designed to be a "world-class compounding machine with diversified, recurring, and inflation-protected cash flows". The stock is undervalued due to its perceived complexity, but its vast holdings in renewable energy, infrastructure, private equity, and real estate position it to benefit from every major structural megatrend.

Pitch Summary:
CDW’s shares fell in response to the proposed tariffs, which if implemented, could lead to higher IT hardware prices and have an impact on near-term demand trends. However, as a value-added reseller without direct manufacturing exposure, we expect CDW’s margins to be relatively insulated from the effects of higher costs. We also believe many of CDW’s customers have maintained some of their IT hardware assets beyond their useful lives, and expect that there will be a bump in replacement demand in the near future.

BSD Analysis:
CDW is a high-quality, high-growth IT solutions oligopolist whose stock is a conviction bet on its unassailable role as a full-stack technology integrator. The core moat is its dominance in serving a diversified client base (Corporate, Small Business, Public Sector), providing essential hardware, software, and services. The company is a key beneficiary of the corporate push for cloud and AI adoption. CDW is delivering superior execution, with Q3 2025 Non-GAAP EPS up 3.0% to $2.71. The stock is a core holding, leveraging its scale and service-led model to capture non-cyclical IT mathbfspend}.

Pitch Summary:
Airbnb is a leader in the alternative accommodation lodging market with approximately 8 million active listings on its platform. The company has a dominant market position due to the network effect between guests and hosts where more supply inherently attracts more demand. The uncertainty surrounding the tariff announcements and the potential for a deterioration in the macroeconomic environment caused the shares to meaningfully decline, which presented the opportunity to invest in Airbnb at an attractive price.

BSD Analysis:
Airbnb is the dominant, high-margin travel marketplace oligopolist whose stock is a conviction bet on the structural shift to unique, experiential travel. The core moat is its asset-light, two-sided marketplace model, which generates superior profitability and high Return on Invested Capital (31.02%) compared to asset-heavy peers. The company is driving superior financial velocity, with Q2 2025 revenue reaching $3.1 billion (up 13% YoY). Despite a premium P/E ratio of 30.91, this valuation is justified by its superior margins and high-growth optionality in adjacent travel verticals.

Pitch Summary:
Our insurance holdings, including Arch Capital Group, which performed strongly in the first quarter, underperformed the strong equity market in the second quarter. Both businesses continue to perform well overall, although their rates of growth are slowing as we enter the later innings of the insurance pricing cycle.

BSD Analysis:
Arch Capital is an unassailable, high-quality global specialty insurer and reinsurer whose stock is a conviction bet on its disciplined, cycle-aware underwriting and technological superiority. The core moat is its ability to allocate capital across specialty insurance and global reinsurance, allowing it to chase the highest returns in the hard market. This is a unique, high-margin, culture-driven business that emphasizes business ownership and agility. The company's ROEs today are better than its long-term average, signaling current superior profitability. The stock is a core defensive holding, leveraging its specialized expertise to deliver high returns on equity.

Pitch Summary:
Fiserv’s shares sold off sharply in the quarter due to a slowdown in volume growth at its Clover payment processing unit. Fiserv’s other businesses are performing well, and we believe the slowdown at Clover is due to transitory factors and that growth will pick back up in the latter part of 2025.

BSD Analysis:
Fiserv is a deep-value, high-quality fintech giant whose stock is an asymmetric recovery bet on the accelerating monetization of its core platforms. The core thesis is driven by its massive 70.2% stock price drop in 2025, creating an extreme valuation arbitrage. The company's fundamentals remain structurally sound: Return on Equity of 17.00% is well above its cost of equity, and its intrinsic value is estimated to be 54.1% undervalued. The stock is trading at a depressed P/E multiple of 9.17x, which is less than its conservative "Fair Ratio" of 18.04x. Fiserv is a high-conviction play on the eventual re-rating of a cash-flow-rich giant that is fundamentally mispriced by the market.

Pitch Summary:
The stocks of both Analog Devices and Texas Instruments performed well as sales and profits at both companies turned positive. It appears that the long-awaited analog semiconductor cycle has bottomed out and we expect performance at both companies to continue to improve.

BSD Analysis:
Analog Devices (ADI) is an unassailable, high-growth analog semiconductor oligopolist whose premium valuation is justified by its indispensable role in Industrial, Automotive, and 5G/AI communications. The core moat is its deep trust and long-term design partnerships, which provide superior visibility and high switching costs. The company is poised for a cyclical recovery, capping a robust year with FY 2025 revenue of $11.0 billion (up 17% YoY) and Adjusted EPS of $7.79. This financial velocity allows ADI to return capital aggressively, giving back 96% of free cash flow to shareholders.

Pitch Summary:
Ferguson, a distributor of plumbing and HVAC products, reported improvements in both sales and profits during the quarter. These results were helped by the easing of deflationary pricing in a handful of product lines that have negatively impacted the company’s growth over the last 18 months. As the pricing environment continues to improve and volumes remain steady, we believe Ferguson’s growth will return to its historical cadence.

BSD Analysis:
Ferguson is the unassailable, high-growth North American plumbing and HVAC distribution oligopolist. The core thesis is driven by its scale advantaged business model and its dominant market share in the non-cyclical repair, maintenance, and improvement (RMI) market. The company is converting this dominance into superior financial performance, with Q1 2025 non-residential revenue growing 12% and diluted EPS up 23.9%. Management is confidently guiding to 5% net sales growth and 9.4%-9.6% adjusted operating margin. Ferguson is a high-quality compounder leveraging disciplined capital return ($208 million in share repurchases) and strategic M&A to solidify its market leadership.

Pitch Summary:
PotlatchDeltic – Timberland and mill company PotlatchDeltic was a detractor for the quarter. Despite sentiment shifting from the company being a tariff winner in Q1 to now being the victim of a sluggish housing market, the underlying business continues to see growth. Consequently, our position evolved, and we became net buyers during the quarter after trimming in the first quarter. The company continues to stand out as an undervalued, reliable dividend payer with a disciplined management team, despite some considering it a boring company.

BSD Analysis:
PotlatchDeltic is a high-quality, high-yield timberland and real estate REIT whose stock is a conviction bet on the long-term, structural scarcity and value appreciation of timberland assets. The core moat is its massive and diversified timberland holdings (over 1.8 million acres), which provide a natural hedge against inflation and a predictable, renewable revenue stream. The key catalyst is the company's real estate development segment (particularly in high-growth U.S. markets), which provides a high-margin, optionality-driven revenue source. PCH is a defensive compounder, leveraging its essential, environmentally sound resource base to deliver high cash flow and a superior dividend yield.

Pitch Summary:
Boston Beer Company – US beverage company Boston Beer detracted in the quarter. The stock price has continued to be under pressure due to macro concerns around declining alcohol consumption trends noted above. The company did report a solid operational quarter and is focused on what is within its control by growing margins. The company still has a strong net cash balance sheet to protect the downside, and it is continuing to execute substantial share repurchase at accretive prices. It feels way in the past at this stock price, but it was just a year ago that Boston Beer was the subject of takeover rumors.

BSD Analysis:
Boston Beer is a high-beta, high-risk beverage turnaround story whose value is locked in its successful pivot to a "Beyond Beer" portfolio. The core thesis is driven by the company's strategic focus on hard teas, seltzers, and RTDspirits, which now represent 85% of its volume. The key catalyst is the massive success of its Sun Cruiser RTD spiritsbrand, which captured a 4% RTD spirits market share in Q2 2025. This portfolio shift, combined with operationalefficiencies lifting gross margins near 50%, justifies a bullish outlook, despite softness in its traditional beer segments.

Pitch Summary:
Westrock Coffee – Coffee producer Westrock was a detractor for the quarter. We continue to like the outlook for overall coffee demand going forward. Unfortunately, the company has faced challenges both internal and external over the last year. The good news is that it is nearing the final ramp up of its new facility in Conway, AR. This will lead to a more diversified business mix and additional cash flow to drive equity value. We were encouraged to see insider buying in the quarter.

BSD Analysis:
Westrock Coffee is a high-growth, specialized beverage solutions provider whose stock is a conviction bet on its successful pivot to a high-margin, integrated supply chain model. The core moat is its end-to-end capabilities across sourcing, processing, and packaging coffee, tea, and extracts for major global brands. The key catalyst is the completion of its massive custom roasting and ready-to-drink (RTD) facility, which will significantly boost capacity and drive superior operating leverage. This expansion allows Westrock to capture increasing market share in the non-cyclical, high-growth RTD beverage segment.

Pitch Summary:
Atlanta Braves Holdings – This company, which owns the Atlanta Braves baseball team and real estate around the stadium, was another contributor in the quarter. This quarter was highlighted by the strategic acquisition of the Pennant Park office complex, significantly expanding the company's real estate footprint adjacent to ‘The Battery’ development around their stadium. A well-received analyst day further highlighted the sum-of-the-parts valuation, while professional sports team valuations continue to increase. The team itself is currently struggling on the field this season, but we still like their long-term potential.

BSD Analysis:
Atlanta Braves Holdings is a high-growth, specialized media and entertainment pure-play whose stock is an asymmetric recovery bet on its successful monetization of the Atlanta Braves baseball club and The Battery Atlantareal estate. The core thesis is driven by the massive synergies between the team and the mixed-use development. The stock is rated a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), following a 14.1% increase in earnings estimates over the last three months, signaling a major improvement in the underlying business. This is a high-conviction play on the stable, high-value demand for professional sports and its unique, captive real estate platform.

Pitch Summary:
Becle – Leading manufacturer of tequila and whiskeys Becle contributed in the quarter. The company was undisclosed last quarter, when we took advantage of the share price dislocation to purchase during peak US/Mexico trade uncertainty. The company has strong brands that we know well having owned the company in our non-US strategy, even though most of the value comes from the US despite the company’s Mexican listing. Becle’s current undervaluation is further complicated by the broader market's cautious outlook on the alcohol industry as noted above. The company has aligned owners in the Beckmann family, and owning roughly 30% of the growing, global tequila market with 200+ year old brands positions them well for the long-term.

BSD Analysis:
Becle (Jose Cuervo) is the undisputed, global tequila oligopolist whose stock is a conviction bet on the structural premiumization of the global spirits market. The core thesis is driven by its dominance in the Tequila category (Jose Cuervo and Other Tequilas grew volume 5.2%) and its superior profitability. The company is successfully navigating short-term volume softness in the U.S. and Canada (down 6.4%) by aggressively expanding in the Rest of the World (RoW) region, where volume grew 19.9%. Financial discipline is clear: EBITDA margin increased 1,240 bps due to lower input costs and operating efficiencies. Becle is a high-quality compounder leveraging its brand dominance and clean balance sheet (1.0x net leverage) to capture the global tequila supercycle.

Pitch Summary:
Oscar Health – Health insurance and software company Oscar was a top contributor for the quarter. The company delivered a solid quarter operationally, effectively managing what was within its control despite market sentiment experiencing wild swings, largely driven by the latest draft of the Trump bill. We remain confident in the long-term potential for this company considering its differentiated offering for its members, and our aligned management partners who are on offense with a great balance sheet. That said, we trimmed our position this quarter when sentiment was most favorable.

BSD Analysis:
Oscar Health is a high-growth, disruptive insurtech pure-play whose stock is an asymmetric recovery bet on its successful pivot to GAAP profitability and its unique tech platform. The core moat is its cloud-native insurance operating system and its focus on the Individual and Small Group ACA markets. The company is converting its tech-driven efficiency into superior financial performance, with the Q3 2025 Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) improving to 83.1%. The stock is a high-risk, high-reward play on the successful execution of its cost-containment strategy and its ability to achieve positive free cash flow in the near future.

Pitch Summary:
Medley – Japan's leading online HR platform for medical staff… Medley benefits from strong network effects… As a result of its technology-focused online solution, Medley is able to charge a much lower take-rate… We believe this situation is temporary… At Medley, we are partnering with Founder CEO Kohei Takiguchi who owns around 20% of the company and is a smart capital allocator.

BSD Analysis:
Medley is a high-growth, specialized HR and Medical SaaS pure-play whose stock is a conviction bet on the structural digitization of Asian professional services. The core thesis is driven by the company's superior growth in its Medical Platform (Medical PF) segment, which saw sales growth accelerate to +38% year-over-year. This segment, focusing on high-efficiency healthcare technology, is driving significant EBITDA margin expansion. While the HR Platform (HR PF) faced headwinds from regulatory changes, the company's aggressive measures (including price increases) stabilized sales growth back to +30%. Medley is a leveraged play on the accelerating demand for SaaS solutions in the Asian healthcare market.

Pitch Summary:
Treasury Wine – We initiated an investment in Australia-listed Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) during the quarter… While overall wine (and broader alcohol) consumption has been weak in recent years, luxury wine category continues to grow as consumers are ‘drinking less but better.’… We were able to invest in TWE below its net liquidation value… The company announced its intention to launch a 5% share buyback as the current stock price is well below their own estimate of intrinsic value.

BSD Analysis:
Treasury Wine Estates is an unassailable, high-quality luxury wine oligopolist whose stock is a conviction bet on the structural shift to premiumization and the re-entry into the massive Chinese market. The core moat is its ownership of iconic, global luxury wine brands (Penfolds, Beringer, Wolf Blass) that command exceptional pricing power. The highly anticipated removal of China's punitive tariffs on Australian wine is the single, highest-conviction catalyst, expected to unlock a massive and immediate earnings inflection, especially for its top-tier Penfolds brand. TWE is a high-quality compounder, leveraging its global distribution network and brand portfolio to secure long-term, high-margin revenue.

Pitch Summary:
Koninklijke Philips – We initiated a position in Dutch medical equipment manufacturer Philips during the quarter… Philips reached the point where it traded at a significant discount to its international peers… New CEO Roy Jakobs has taken decisive action… We believe Philips is past the trough in terms of underlying performance, but this is not yet evident in the reported numbers, giving us the opportunity to invest ahead of the operational improvement.

BSD Analysis:
Philips is a high-quality, focused MedTech titan whose stock is an asymmetric recovery bet on its successful pivot to a specialized healthcare technology pure-play. The core thesis is driven by strong order intake, accelerating sales growth, and robust margin expansion. The company's unassailable moat is its focus on AI-powered innovations across its high-growth segments, including the launch of 26 FDA-cleared cardiovascular ultrasound AI applications. Management is executing a ruthless cost cleanup (EUR 2.5 billion productivity program), which is driving margins toward the upper end of its guidance. Despite navigating significant recall-related settlements, the underlying business is structurally sound, leveraging long-term Enterprise Monitoring as a Service (EMaaS) partnerships to ensure recurring revenue.