The harsh global folio!

As of today, I initiated a 2% position in VF Corp. They own very renowned brands like North Face, Vans, Timberland, Dickies and Supreme. I am a big fan of their North face brand which produces very durable sports accessories.

This is a 100+ year old company with a history of profitable growth and growing dividends. They return most of their free cashflows via dividends or buybacks (see below).

With current recession fears, stock has gone down a lot and is trading at 2012-13 levels. However, their core brands are very strong. In last few years, they have grown via inorganic expansion, with the last one being a $2bn acquisition of Supreme brand in 2020. Most of their manufacturing is outsourced to China, as a result of which most of the balance sheet is working capital + intangibles.

Receivables are generally set-off against payables, and company funds inventory from their own book (3-4 month of working capital). Given their strong positioning, working capital has been well managed over years.

In terms of valuations, the only time they traded at lower multiples (on EV/sales) in the last 15 years was during 2008-09 crisis.

However, since 2008-09, their gross margins have improved significantly. So I do not think that current valuations are very demanding.

I will scale up position if valuations go down to 2008-09 levels. If this position doesn’t work out, I will blame @rajanprabu as he brought up this idea. If it works out, I will take the credit :wink:

Updated portfolio is below and cash reduces to 18%.

Companies Weightage
AB InBev 5.00%
Berkshire Hathaway 10.00%
Disney 5.00%
Fairfax India Holdings 10.00%
Markel Corporation 5.00%
Philip morris 2.00%
Uber Technologies Inc 2.00%
UBS ETF CH-SMI 5.00%
Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fd 10.00%
Dropbox Inc 2.00%
Netflix Inc 5.00%
Suzuki Motor 5.00%
Starbucks 5.00%
Inmode Ltd 2.00%
DWS Group GmbH & Co. KGaA (DWS) 2.00%
Google 5.00%
VF Corp 2.00%
Cash 18.00%
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