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“The game of investment is really continuous learning. Everything affects an investment, it constantly changes.”
- Li Lu, 2010
Being named as the successor to the “Oracle of Omaha” is no slim task. But Li Lu, Chairman of Himalaya Capital Management, was recently named as the most likely figure to fill Buffett’s shoes and manage the bulk of Berkshire Hathaway’s investment portfolio in the coming years when the legendary investor steps down.
For Li, it has been a long and uphill climb to success. Growing up in China, his parents were whisked away during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, leaving the young Li to be entrusted to foster parents. Later on, Li took part in the infamous Tiananmen Square protests before escaping to the United States.
Ironically, his rise on Wall Street began with Warren Buffett. While a student at Columbia University, Li attended a lecture by Buffett in 1993. Inspired by the investing guru, as well as the charged financial climate of the time, Li used the royalties from a book he had written on his experiences, and began investing in stocks.
Li graduated in 1996 with degrees in economics, law and business and a substantial amount in savings. He joined Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, a securities firm but soon left to set up his own hedge fund named Himalaya Partners. Although Li managed to build up a strong clientele, the Asian financial crisis took its toll. A heavy investor in Asian stocks to this day, Li lost out heavily. His fund suffered a loss of 19% in 1998 and Li expressed that he, “felt bad that people had trusted me.” But within a year, the markets rebounded and Li was back on track.
Five years later, a turning point occurred in Li’s life. It was then that he met Charlie Munger, Buffett’s long-time friend and business partner, an opportunity that would open many doors. The very next year, Munger, who had been impressed by Li, handed over $4 million of his personal savings along with another $50 million from other investors, and asked the aspiring young man to make a wise investment.
That wise investment was Chinese battery manufacturer, BYD. Li’s choice was rewarded in the next four or five years as BYD continued to expand into other spheres, even manufacturing its own brand of cars.
“Columbia is where my whole life in America started. I could barely
speak the language. In Columbia it was where I had a new life. It was
really in the Value Investing class where I got my career start…a friend
told me about this class and said I need to see a lecture from Warren
Buffett,” muses Li in a lecture at Columbia University recently.
Li’s investment strategies are very different from those of Buffett’s. While Li prefers to invest in high tech Asian companies, Buffett avoids investments in such industries, ones which he says he cannot comprehend. It was then a big surprise in 2008, when Li, Munger and David Sokol, another of Buffett’s trusted business partners, convinced Buffett to invest $230 million of Berkshire capital for a 10% stake in BYD. “I don't know a thing about cellphones or batteries. And I don't know how cars work,” he admitted to CNN. But “Charlie Munger and Dave Sokol are smart guys, and they do understand it,” he added reassuringly.
Today, not only has Munger’s initial capital investment leapt six times in value to about $1.5 billion, but BYD’s business is thriving, capturing almost one-third of the global market for lithium-ion batteries, used in cell phones. Li is now an informal adviser on BYD’s board and even owns a 2.5% stake. Li’s hedge fund has also performed well, raking in an annualized compound return of 26.4% since 1998. With this, Li has been catapulted into the limelight, prompting Munger to declare, “In my mind, it’s a foregone conclusion,” that the 44-year-old Li will take over from Buffett.
Yet, not everyone has been convinced that the choice is a sound one. Skeptical eyebrows were raised at Buffett’s choice over Sokol, who has far more experience and has a well-laid out management style. And while Li’s only claim to fame is BYD, Sokol has a number of significant deals stacked up in his favor.
Nevertheless, it is Li who has broadened Buffett’s vision in recent years. Now, Buffett is planning to visit India and Japan, trawling for more deals. Michael Yoshikami, an asset manager with YCMNet Advisors in California tells Businessweek that Li is, “a person that Buffett has confidence in from a trust standpoint and who has experience from an international standpoint.” If Li indeed takes over from Buffett, it will be a personal triumph for a young man who sought the freedom to live his dream.
Image Credit: Karchang888 under author’s permission through a Creative Commons license
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