Q4 2024 Portfolio Update

2024 was my 3rd full year of investing and was a down year in terms of returns to last year and not great compared to my benchmark the MSCI World Index(URTH). Full year 2024 return was 6.05% compared to 2023 which was 13% and 2024 MSCI World (URTH) of 18.7%.

My cute decisions this year of trying to do merger arb really killed me. Both Capri and Albertsons which I both thought had a high degree of going though, got torched when the government blocked the deal. I lost about 30% on Albertsons and 50% on Capri which I still hold mostly due to the disillusion that their appeal to a higher court under a trump presidency will let the Tapestry deal go through. But Tapestry pulled the deal officially in November a month after the deal was blocked so now it’ll get sold in Jan 2025. 2025 will be the year of no merger arb as so far in my investing journey in my 3 merger arb trades I have lost money in all of them. My original portfolio philosophy was trying to find companies I can hold for a long time and I’ve had more success with that than trying to do shorter term things.

In 2024 I felt I had a lot less time to research stocks due to personal and work events. If this continues in 2025 I may need to index a part of my portfolio or reduce my positions. I have been thinking that 20 positions is kinda too much for me as that was my original portfolio goal when I started but have yet to ever reach that.

One of my goals in 2023 for 2024 was to get to 90% invested which I didn’t get too. At the end of 2024 I was at 81% which is higher than the 65% I ended 2023 with, so there was some progress. I disposed of 2 positions in the Q4 while adding 1. For the year I’ve added 11 positions while disposing of 5.

For 2025 my goals are to get over 90% invested, add more info to my website, set aside more time then last year for my portfolio(2024 I published 18 articles so that is the benchmark), and sort out the total positions/indexing question.

Historical Portfolio Returns

Year	My Portfolio	MSCI World Index(URTH)
2022	-9%	-18%
2023	13%	24%
2024	6%	18%

2024 Year End Portfolio

Company	Ticker	Allocation	Average Price Per Share	Price Now	Percentage Up/Down	Last Article
Banco Latinoamericano	NYSE:BLX	3.1%	15.69	35.57	126.70%	Link
Good Times Restaurants	GTIM	2.3%	3.53	2.59	-26.63%	Link
ONEX Holdings	TSE:ONEX	2.0%	78.28	112.28	43.43%	Link
Vinci	VINP	5.4%	10.53	10.07	-4.37%	Link
Sutl Enterprise	SGX:BHU	3.0%	0.521	0.69	32.44%	Link
Nihon Falcom	TYO:3723	2.7%	1257.5	1183	-5.92%	Link
Aeroporto Guglielmo	BIT:ADB	2.7%	7.95	7.44	-6.42%	Link
Bolsa Mexicana De Valores	BMV:BOLSAA	2.5%	35.44	33.36	-5.87%	Link
Frontier Development	LON:FDEV	2.7%	3.41	2.05	-39.88%	Link
HRnet	SGX:CHZ	4.3%	0.72	0.68	-5.70%	Link
Bank7	BSVN	5.2%	22.41	46.66	108.21%	Link
Grupo Aero Cen	OMAB	4.3%	64.47	68.64	6.47%	Link
Carriage Services	CSV	4.7%	24.48	39.85	62.76%	Link
NZME Limited	ASX:NZM	3.2%	0.82	0.99	21.32%	Link
Caltagirone Editore	BIT:CED	4.5%	1.13	1.4	23.53%	Link
Deutsche Beteilgungs AG	ETR:DBAN	4.2%	25.93	23	-11.29%	Link
ISEC Healthcare	SGX:40T	4.2%	0.39	0.4	1.91%	None
Q & M Dental Group	SGX: QC7	4.3%	0.28	0.28	-0.08%	None
One Group Hospitality	STKS	3.6%	3.52	2.9	-17.72%	Link
RCI Hospitality	RICK	2.9%	45.7	57.47	25.75%	None
Capri Holdings	CPRI	3.8%	39	21.06	-46.00%	None
Piquadro SpA	BIT:PQ	4%	2.14	2.01	-5.96%	Link
Cash		19%

Column Meanings
Allocation: Percentage of portfolio put into the company on a cost basis
Average Price per share: Average price per share I paid for a company.
Price Now: This is the latest price of the company as of the date of the article
Percentage Up/Down: Percentage change from the purchase price.
Last Article: Link to last article

Added Since Last Update

Piquadro Spa(BIT:PQ)
Link to Article(Link)

Subtracted Since Last Update

Sendas Distribuidora(Ticker:ASAI)
Sendas Distribuidora performance since I purchased it in May 2024 has been horrendous especially in USD. This is due to the Brazilian real doing terribly since May going from 5.1 to 6.1 to USD since May and brazilian interest rates increasing rather than decreasing due to inflation fears. ASAI is pretty levered so interest rates going up has been detrimental to the companies bottom line. I still think the company is pretty good though I mostly sold it to do some tax lost harvesting and plan to repurchase it in late January in the much more discounted price its currently at.

Albertsons(Ticker:ACI)
After the deal with Kroger was blocked I disposed of this one in Q4.

Watchlist(Things I found interesting in the Quarter)

JSE(Ticker:JSE)
The South Africa stock exchange reminds me of the Mexican exchange which I hold. A emerging market exchange that trades at a discount to more developed market exchanges with a nice dividend. Politically South Africa seems to be a lot more volatile than Mexico and the country seems to be a bit unstable at least the past couple of years. In early 2024 the stock got smashed due to these instability’s things seem to be getting better though but if another destabilizing event happens it might not be a bad idea to buy in.

Zignago Vetro SpA(BIT:ZV)
A Glass Container manufacturing in Italy. The interesting aspect of the company is its exposure to cosmetics as its a major manufacture of glass perfume and cosmetic containers. The company is having a bad 2024 but to be fair the glass container sector its self is suffering from end consumers being over inventoried. I can’t tell if the 2023 and 2022 numbers are sustainable or if those were just one off years in terms of profitability. Definity something to watch though.

Fope(BIT:FPE)
Another Italian Company. Fope is a jewelry located in Vicenza where they manufacture and distribute their jewelry all over the world recently expanding into Japan and Kuala Lumpur. Fope had a record 2023 but 2024 has been tough with revenue and profits down. The company seems to be solid with high insider ownership and high ROE. Just not sure about the price right now.