John Sevior’s simple principles for investment success

The early 90s was an interesting time. The internet was taking off, Australia was having the ‘recession it had to have’, and Perpetual was a hotbed of Australian investing talent. A host of great investors either started or furthered their careers at the firm around this time, with many of them later launching their own boutiques. Among them was John Sevior, who along with David Cooper, founded Airlie Funds Management in 2012.

John believes the success of the firm was largely due to it being a group of like-minded people who knew the limits of their knowledge. But most of all, they always stuck to a set of simple – but not always easy – investment principles.

In this episode of The Rules of Investing podcast, John explains those simple principles that have guided his investments and how they’ve evolved over the years. He also tells us how investing first piqued his interest, and we take a deep dive into two high quality, underappreciated Australian retailers. 

Time stamps and discussion topics:

• 02:22 - How John became interested in stocks
• 05:27 - The funds management landscape in the 1990s
• 07:56 - The Airlie approach to investing
• 10:07 - The secret to a happy partnerships
• 12:15 - Why Airlie sold to Magellan
• 15:51 - Key lessons from the August reporting season
• 19:59 - A deep dive into JB Hi-Fi
• 25:27 - What does the future hold for Premier Investments and their holdings?
• 32:24 - John answers our 3 favourite questions.

Book recommendation

One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market, by Peter Lynch and John Rothschild. Available on Amazon and Booktopia. 

Podcast summary

My colleague Angus Kennedy has also published a write-up of the podcast's content:

Education

John Sevior on the key principles for long-term gains

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Invest where fair value exceeds market price

Airlie Funds Management identifies Australian companies based on their financial strength, attractive durable business characteristics and the quality of their management teams. Visit their website for more information.