Baobab Investment Managers is a boutique, employee owned, global investment firm that originated out of a Friends and Family Fund established in 1997 by Baobab’s Chief Investment Officer, Martin van Blerk.

More than 80% of Martin’s and his family’s net worth is invested in Baobab. 

Baobab has always followed a fundamental, bottom-up, value investment approach. We think and behave as owners of the businesses in which we invest. We spend no time forecasting macroeconomic variables, but rather look for a margin of safety and the opportunity to buy businesses at a meaningful discount to their intrinsic value.

We opportunistically seek out these investments that tend to present themselves when there are short term dislocations in a company, industry or geographic region. When we find an opportunity we prefer to make a concentrated investment and hold onto our investment for the long term. We run a very concentrated portfolio and are comfortable being focused in a handful of positions.

For example, our top 5 positions are regularly >50% of the total portfolio.

Risk for us is the chance we lose our investors’ capital on a permanent basis. Risk has never been volatility or being different to our peers.