‍

Describe Third Avenue and its Investment Philosophy.

‍

Summary:

• We practice one investment philosophy at Third Avenue which is fundamental, bottom up, long-term value investing.
• We look to buy businesses at a significant discount to a conservative estimate of Net Asset Value.
• As contrarian value investors, we aim to buy grey clouds and sell sunshine.

‍

What are you looking for when building an international portfolio?

Summary:

• It's incredibly difficult to find bargains in the U.S., which forces us to look for cheapness internationally.  
• We worry about all different types of risks including currency risk, leverage risk, political risk, control party risks, etc.
• Alignment of interests: Matt has a significant portion of his personal wealth invested alongside our shareholders.
• Third Avenue seeks well-financed companies to build attractive portfolios from the bottom up that look nothing like an index.

‍

What is misunderstood about International Investing?

Summary:

• The fund is significantly underweight the U.S. (~13% vs. ~70% in benchmark) due to difficulty finding value domestically. Fine emphasizes valuation gaps between U.S. and international equities, often overlooked despite strong fundamentals abroad.

‍

Where are the buyers for non-U.S. value equities?

Summary:

• Matthew stresses economic yield and cash flow return over multiple expansion.  You should think about buying a business where the actual economics of the underlying business provide an adequate return to you as a shareholder.  Example: Subaru, Bank of Ireland.
• When you buy a business at 5.5x earnings, that’s close to a ~20% free cash flow yield. Now you may not need that re-rating and it also means returns are now more dependent on intrinsic business economics.

‍

How are Tariffs and currency volatility affecting international investing?

Summary:

• Matt views tariffs and currency volatility not just as risks, but also as opportunities—e.g. Japan's volatile yen created buying opportunities in companies like Subaru.
• Copper miners in the portfolio benefit from global supply tightness and geopolitical fragmentation, which amplifies pricing power and long-term structural opportunity.

‍

‍